Dillingham 
A  Tribute  to  the  Memory 

Peter 


of 
Collinson 


^TRIBUTE  TO   THE   MEMORY 


PETER  COLLINSON, 


WITH    SOME    NOTICE    OF 


DR.  DARLINGTON'S  MEMORIALS 


JOHN  BARTRAM  AND  HUMPHRY   MARSHALL. 


Second  Edition. 

WITH    ADDITIONAL    NOTES    AND    AN    APPENDIX, 


BYWM.    H.    DILLINGHAM 


PHILADELPHIA : 
HENRY  LONGSTRETH,  347  MARKET  STREET, 

1852. 


P.R.S.  S.A.S 


ACAD.REG.  BEROL:  et  SVEC.  soc 


TRIBUTE  TO  THE  MEMORY 


PETER  COLLINSON, 


WITH    SOME    NOTICE    OF 


DR.  DARLINGTON'S  MEMORIALS 


JOHN  BARTRAM  AND  HUMPHRY  MARSHALL. 


Second  Edition, 

WITH    ADDITIONAL    NOTES    AND    AN   APPENDIX. 


BY    WM.    H.    DILLINGHAM 


PHILADELPHIA: 

HENRY    LONGSTRETH,    347    MARKET    STREET, 
1852. 


PETER   COLLINSON. 


THIS  name  indicates  where  those  who  would  profit  by  the 
teachings  of  history  may  find  a  happy  illustration  of  the  many 
excellent  traits  of  character  which  result  from  a  life  conformed 
to  principles  of  Friends.  The  sect  has  been  much  criticised ; 
the  number  of  its  adherents  is  limited  in  extent ;  we  do  not  our- 
selves see  things  spiritual  in  the  light  they  do,  and  we  have 
heretofore  expressed  our  dissent  and  given  our  reasons  as  occa- 
sion prompted.*  But  the  truth  of  history  must  concede  to  them 
rare  virtues,  characterized  as  they  are  by  self-denial,  and  emi- 
nent success  in  their  efforts  to  relieve  suffering  humanity.  In- 
deed they  deny  themselves  the  use  of  some  agencies  which  most 
Christians  think  powerful  and  effectual  as  means  of  doing  good. 
They  have  had  the  test  of  time ;  they  have  had  their  trials, 
neither  few  nor  small;  they  have  been  sifted  and  scanned; 
and,  while  differing  from  almost  all  the  rest  of  the  world  in 
some  great  leading  rules  of  life  and  conduct,  they  have  perse- 
vered and  have  been  sustained :  after  the  lapse  of  more  than 
two  centuries,  the  world  sees  a  vast  product  of  good  to  the 
whole  human  family  from  the  labours  of  these  few  men.f  Upon 
whom  else  in  the  wide  world,  since  time  began,  has  the  sun  of 
truth  shone  with  a  brighter  light  to  carry  him  to  the  dark  re- 
cesses and  secret  depths  of  sorrow,  suffering,  sin  and  shame, 
to  relieve  the  miseries  of  a  brother  sinner,  a  fellow  immortal  ? 
Wherever  man  presents  himself,  of  whatever  race  or  kind; 

*  This  was  the  expression  of  the  Princeton  Review,  where  the  original 
article  appeared. 

f  They  seek  to  personify  the  practical  benevolence  which  their  name 
indicates,  in  humble  imitation  of  the  example  set  them  by  the  one  great 
"  Friend  of  Sinners." 

(3) 


however  wrecked  in  body,  in  mind,  or  in  estate ;  however  savage, 
barbarous,  and  idolatrous ;  however  vicious  and  corrupt,  the 
slave  of  his  appetites  and  passions ;  nay,  however  sunk  in  the 
depths  of  infamy  and  crime,  Friends  regard  him  still  as  a  fellow 
creature,  to  whom  "  our  Father  in  heaven"  has  imparted  an 
immortal  soul,  and  who,  while  life  lasts,  should  be  treated  and 
cared  for  as  a  fellow  traveller  to  eternity.* 

Their  success  in  these  efforts  has  certainly  been  pre-eminent. 
Witness  their  treatment  of  the  criminal  and  of  the  insane.  We 
cite  this  as  one  of  the  good  traits  for  which  Friends  are  distin- 
guished, and  it  is  one  which  has  contributed  to  give  character 
to  the  age.  Who  does  not  rejoice  to  live  in  an  age  when  the 
insane  are  no  longer  treated  with  cruelty,  and  when  the  most 
wretched  in  crime  may  be  taught  that  there  is  still,  for  them 
even,  a  God  of  infinite  mercy  ?  How  do  we  look  back  with 
wonder  upon  the  thousands  of  years  the  world  had  existed  be- 
fore it  was  discovered  that  a  grand  panacea  for  diseases  of  the 
mind  was  to  be  found  in  the  law  of  love  ?  And  how  does  the 
world  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  one  came  down  from  heaven 
"  and  abode  awhile  in  the  flesh,"  to  teach  man  how  he  should 
treat  his  brother  sinner,  and  to  point  the  dying  malefactor  to 
the  gate  of  heaven  ?  For  the  general  prevalence,  blessed  in- 
fluence, and  practical  application  of  these  truths,  we  are  greatly 
indebted  to  Friends. 

Their  quiet  virtues,  happy  amenities,  and  silent  worth,  do 
not  attract  the  gaze  of  the  world ;  but  they  will  repay  us  for 
seeking  out  and  looking  into  them.  Their  simple  habits ;  their 
industry,  integrity,  and  thrift ;  their  pleasure  in  doing  good ; 
their  intense  interest  in  nature's  varied  handiwork  ;  their  esti- 
mate of  things  conducive  to  comfort,  peace,  and  happiness,  over 
things  luxurious  and  things  ostentatious ;  their  abhorrence  of 
war  ;  their  active  sympathy  with  all  in  distress,  and  their  pre- 
ference of  the  "  good  name  which  is  better  than  precious  oint- 

*  Many  believe  that  there  is  a  light  in  the  breast  of  every  human  being 
which  should  enable  him  to  discriminate  between  good  and  evil,  and 
which,  however  it  may  become  clouded  and  darkened,  is  never  wholly  ex- 
tinguished while  life  lasts.  To  this  spark  of  reason  and  conscience  they 
address  themselves  with  the  law  of  brotherly  kindness,  and  seek  to  kindle 
the  light  within. 


ment"  over  worldly  glory,  had  all  a  faithful  representative  in 
Peter  Collinson.*  In  their  full  representation  we  do  not  think 
the  Society  has  produced  his  superior.  We  do  not  say  that  he 
was  a  better  man  than  George  Fox  or  William  Penn ;  that  he 
was  so  deep  a  thinker  as  Dr.  Fothergill ;  that  he  did  more  to 
leave  a  name  behind  him  than  James  Logan  ;  that  he  was  so 
great  a  naturalist  as  John  Bartram ;  or  that  he  relieved  as 
much  distress  as  Elizabeth  Fry.  But,  studying  his  character 
as  it  has  been  recently  developed,  it  does  appear  to  us  that  he 
combined  more  of  all  these  respective  qualities  than  either  of 
the  individuals  named.  One  who  has  done  more  than  any  ether 
towards  this  development,  and  who  understands  the  whole  sub- 
ject as  well  as  any  man  living,  says  of  him,  in  a  manuscript 
now  under  our  eye — "he  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  dis- 
tinguished cultivators,  and  most  distinguished  patrons,  of  the 
Natural  Sciences  in  the  Society  of  Friends ;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  an  honour  and  an  ornament  to  the  sect."  It  must  be 
acknowledged  that  the  same  authority  says  of  Dr.  Fothergill, 
the  intimate  friend  of  Peter  Collinson,  that  he  "  regards  him 
as  the  most  accomplished  Quaker  that  ever  lived,  whether  con- 
sidered as  a  man  of  science,  or  as  a  philanthropist" — adding, 
"  while  the  Society  of  Friends  may  ever  be  proud  of  their 
great  lawgiver,  Penn,  the  lovers  of  nature  among  them  may 
boast  of  a  Logan,  a  Collinson,  a  Fothergill,  and  a  Marshall; 
to  each  of  whom  a,  genus  has  been  dedicated,  that  will  preserve 
the  memory  of  their  worth  and  services  as  long  as  the  plants 
which  bear  their  names  shall  continue  to  grow."  But  the  pre- 
eminence in  accomplishments  among  Friends,  which  our  corres- 
pondent assigns  to  Dr.  Fothergill,  relates  particularly  to  science 
and  philanthropy.  As  a  practical  utilitarian,  a  helper  of  others 
to  do  good  to  their  fellow-men,  and  to  attain  the  heights  and 
depths  of  scientific  discovery  ;  to  push  their  researches  through 
difficulties  and  dangers  to  earth's  remotest  bounds,  and  perhaps 
in  some  other  characteristic  excellencies,  Peter  Collinson  sur- 
passed him ;  although  it  must  at  the  same  time  be  confessed 

*  Enclosed  in  Peter  Collinson's  Will  was  found  a  paper  importing, 
"  that  he  hoped  he  should  leave  behind  him  a  good  name  which  he  valued 
more  than  riches  :  that  he  had  endeavoured  not  to  live  uselessly ;  and  that 
all  his  days  he  constantly  aimed  to  be  a  friend  of  mankind." 
1* 


6 

also,  he  was  not  so  good  a  Whig,  nor  so  great  a  friend  to  our 
revolutionary  movement. 

Could  we  ask  Dr.  Franklin — "  who,  of  all  men,  best  deserved 
a  statue,  in  commemoration  of  active,  disinterested,  and  valua- 
ble services  in  building  up  the  Philadelphia  Library  ?"  he  would 
say,  "  Peter  Collinson."  Those  most  knowing  in  the  early  his- 
tory of  this  institution  now  say,  that  the  marble  which  occu- 
pies a  niche  in  its  front,  would  have  found  a  more  fitting  place 
in  front  of  the  Philosophical  Hall  opposite.  Ask  Franklin 
again,  "  from  whom  he  derived  the  information,  and  who  fur- 
nished him  with  the  hints,  and  put  into  his  hands  the  actual 
mea.ns,  whereby  he  made  his  splendid  discovery  of  the  identity 
of  lightning  and  electricity,"  and  he  will  tell  you,  "Peter  Col- 
linson."* It  is  melancholy  to  think  that  his  thirty  years  gra- 
tuitous and  invaluable  services  for  the  Library  should  have 
been  terminated  by  this  excellent  man,  as  we  have  good  author- 
ity to  believe,  under  a  sense  that  they  had  not  been  duly  esti- 
mated by  those  having  it  in  charge. 

He  was  the  only  man  in  the  Royal  Society  at  London  who 
appreciated  Franklin's  letters  announcing  his  discovery;  which, 
when  first  communicated  there,  were  frowned  down,  sneered  at, 
and  refused  a  place  in  their  published  transactions.  Peter 
Collinson  had  them  published,  drew  the  attention  of  knowing 

*  In  Dr.  Lettsom's  edition  of  Dr.  Fothergill's  works  we  find  a  letter 
from  Dr.  Franklin  to  Michael  Collinson,  Esq.,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
father's  death,  dated  "Craven  Street,  Feb.  8,  1770,"  from  which  we 
give  an  extract.  After  referring  to  and  describing  the  valuable  services 
rendered  to  the  Philadelphia  Library,  by  Peter  Collinson,  he  goes  on  to 
say: 

"  During  the  same  time  he  transmitted  to  the  Directors  of  the  Library 
the  earliest  accounts  of  every  new  European  improvement  in  agriculture 
and  the  arts,  and  every  philosophical  discovery ;  among  which,  in  1745, 
he  sent  over  an  account  of  the  new  German  experiments  in  electricity, 
together  with  a  glass  tube,  and  some  directions  for  using  it,  so  as  to  repeat 
these  experiments.  This  was  the  first  notice  I  had  of  that  curious  sub- 
ject, which  I  afterwards  prosecuted  with  some  diligence,  being  encouraged 
by  the  friendly  reception  he  gave  to  the  letters  I  wrote  to  him  upon  it. 
Please  to  accept  this  small  testimony  of  mine  to  his  memory,  for  which  I 
shall  ever  have  the  utmost  respect ;  and  believe  me,  with  sincere  esteem, 
Dear  Sir,  your  most  obedient,  humble  servant, 

B.  FRANKLIN." 


men  to  them,  excited  admiration  of  the  wonderful  secret  dis- 
closed, and  was  among  the  very  first  to  foresee  and  proclaim 
Franklin's  undying  renown. 

He  did  more  than  any  man  living  to  help  to  make  John 
Bartram  what  he  became,  and  without  his  aid  Bartram  could 
never  have  accomplished  one  half  his  wonderful  achievements. 
Dr.  Fothergill  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  "  That  eminent  naturalist, 
John  Bartram,  may  almost  be  said  to  have  been  created  such 
by  my  friend's  assistance,"— '  constantly  exciting  him  to  perse- 
vere in  investigating  the  plants  of  America,  which  he  has  exe- 
cuted with  indefatigable  labour  through  a  long  course  of  years, 
and  with  amazing  success." 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  that  it  should  have  been  reserved 
for  our  own  time  and  for  our  own  country,  to  bring  to  light  far 
more  than  was  before  known  of  the  life,  history,  and  scientific 
habits  and  correspondence  of  that  eminent  and  excellent  man, 
who  was  a  London  merchant,  and  who  died  about  the  middle  of 
the  last  century.  True,  the  English  themselves  acknowledge, 
that  it  was  an  American  who  first  told  them  what  they  wanted 
to  know  about  Sebastian  Cabot.  The  Edinburg  Reviewers, 
even  before  that,  had  found  out  that  "  they  should  soon  learn  to 
love  the  Americans  if  they  sent  them  many  more  such  books," 
as  one  which  Robert  Walsh  had  written  about  France. 

The  recent  work  by  Dr.  Darlington,  a  Pennsylvanian,  has 
awakened  deep  interest  in  England,  with  regard  to  one  of  their 
own  sons  collaterally  introduced,  and  is  equally  well  spoken  of 
on  both  sides  of  the  water.  It  is  entitled,  "Memorials  of  John 
Bartram  and  Humphry  Marshall ;"  but  nearly  one  half  of  its 
five  hundred  and  ninety-five  pages  of  fair,  large,  open  type,  is 
occupied  with  the  letters  of  Peter  Collinson.  No  Philadelphian 
can  read  it  without  feeling  that  the  next  statue  erected  in  the 
city  of  brotherly  love  after  those  of  Penn  and  Franklin,  and 
that  contemplated  in  honour  of  Washington,  should  be  one  to 
perpetuate  the  memory  of  what  she  owes  to  Peter  Collinson. 
Whoever  reads  it  will  find  interesting  matters  of  colonial 
history;  minute  particulars  illustrating  the  character  of  the 
intercourse  between  this  country  and  the  old  for  fifty  years 
before  the  Revolution,  which  he  sees  nowhere  else. 
But  to  return  to  Peter  Collinson— since  sounding  his  praises 


so  loud,  we  must  be  permitted  to  call  up  Southey  to  our  sup- 
port. He  thus  sums  up  in  few  words,  what  was  known  and 
thought  of  this  London  friend  of  our  own  Logan,  Franklin 
and  Bartram,  in  his  time : 

"Peter  Collinson,  whose  pious  memory  ought  to  be  a  stand- 
ing toast  at  the  meetings  of  the  Horticultural  Society,  used  to 
say  that  he  never  knew  an  instance  in  which  the  pursuit  of  such 
pleasure  as  the  culture  of  a  garden  affords,  did  not  find  men 
temperate  and  virtuous,  or  make  them  so.  And  this  may  be 
affirmed  as  an  undeniable  and  not  unimportant  fact  relating  to 
the  lower  classes  of  society,  that  whenever  the  garden  of  a  cot- 
tage or  other  humble  dwelling  is  carefully  and  neatly  kept, 
neatness,  and  thrift,  and  domestic  comfort  will  be  found  within 
doors. 

"  When  Mr.  Allison  settled  at  Thaxed- Grange,  English  gardens 
were  beginning  generally  to  profit  by  the  benevolent  and  happy 
endeavours  of  Peter  Collinson  to  improve  them.  That  singu- 
larly good  man  availed  himself  of  his  mercantile  connection, 
and  of  the  opportunities  afforded  him  by  the  Royal  Society,  of 
which  he  was  one  of  the  most  diligent  and  useful  members,  to 
procure  seeds  and  plants  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  these 
he  liberally  communicated  to  his  friends.  So  they  found  their 
way  first  into  the  gardens  of  the  curious,  then  of  the  rich,  and 
lastly,  when  their  beauty  recommended  them,  spread  themselves 
in  those  of  ordinary  persons.  He  divided  his  time  between  the 
counting-house  in  Grace-church  street,  and  his  country  house 
and  garden  at  Mill  Hill  near  Hendon ;  it  might  have  grieved 
him  could  he  have  foreseen  that  his  grounds  there  would  pass 
into  the  hands  of  a  purchaser  who  in  mere  ignorance  rooted 
out  the  rarest  plants,  and  cut  down  trees  which  were  scarcely 
to  be  found  in  perfection  anywhere  else  in  the  kingdom  at 
that  time. 

"  Mr.  Collinson  was  a  man  of  whom  it  was  truly  said  that,  not 
having  any  public  station,  he  was  the  means  of  procuring 
national  advantages  for  his  country,  and  possessed  an  influence 
which  wealth  cannot  purchase,  and  will  be  honoured  when 
titles  are  forgotten.  For  thirty  years  he  executed  gratuitously 
the  commissions  of  the  Philadelphia  Subscription  Library,  the 
first  that  was  established  in  America ;  he  assisted  the  directors 


9 

in  their  choice  of  books,  took  the  whole  care  of  collecting  and 
shipping  them,  and  transmitted  to  the  directors  the  earliest 
account  of  every  improvement  in  agriculture  and  the  arts,  and 
of  every  philosophical  discovery. 

"  Franklin,  who  was  the  founder  of  that  library,  made  his  first 
electrical  experiments  with  an  apparatus  that  had  been  sent  to 
it  as  a  present  by  Peter  Collinson.  He  deemed  it,  therefore,  a 
proper  mark  of  acknowledgment  to  inform  him  of  the  success 
with  which  it  had  been  used,  and  his  first  essays  on  electricity 
were  originally  communicated  to  this  good  man.  They  were 
read  in  the  Royal  Society,  '  where  they  were  not  thought  worth 
so  much  notice  as  to  be  printed  in  their  transactions  ;'  and  his 
paper  in  which  the  sameness  of  lightning  with  electricity  was 
first  asserted,  was  laughed  at  by  the  connoisseurs.  Peter  Collin- 
son, however,  gave  the  letters  to  Cave  for  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine.  Cave,  forming  a  better  judgment  than  the  Royal 
Society  had  done,  printed  them  separately  in  a  pamphlet,  for 
which  Dr.  Fothergill  wrote  a  preface ;  the  pamphlet  by  succes- 
sive additions  swelled  to  a  volume  in  quarto,  which  went  through 
five  editions,  and,  as  Franklin  observes,  '  cost  Cave  nothing  for 
copy  money.' 

"  What  a  contrast  between  this  English  Quaker  and  Monsieur 
La  Cour  at  Leyden,  who,  having  raised  a  double  tuberose  from 
the  seed,  and  propagated  it  by  the  roots  till  he  had  as  many  as 
he  could  find  room  to  plant,  destroyed  the  rest  as  fast  as  they 
were  produced,  that  he  might  boast  of  being  the  only  person  in 
Europe  who  possessed  it." 

We  present  this  passage  entire,  from  that  curious  book  of 
miscellanies,  "The  Doctor,"  which  having  no  index,  and  one 
part  having  no  connection  with  another,  except  that  each  was 
written  down  by  Southey,  few  know  all  the  good  things  it  con- 
tains. The  author's  allusion  to  Franklin  and  the  conduct  of 
the  Royal  Society,  are  in  a  spirit  above  the  prejudices  which 
sometimes  influence  the  judgment  of  a  poet-laureate,  and  there 
are  some  who  will  suspect  that  Southey  was  not  aware  of  the 
high  compliment  he  was  bestowing  upon  this  country  in  his 
praise  of  Peter  Collinson ;  or,  where  it  was  that  Peter  found 
such  extensive  means  of  conferring  good  upon  his  fellow  sub- 
jects of  the  kingdom  of  England.  It  has  a  marked  emphasis 


10 

as  coining  from  a  high  churchman,  in  reference  to  a  simple 
Quaker. 

There  is  true  magnanimity  in  the  manner  he  speaks  of,  and 
leaves  behind  him  an  abiding  testimonial  to  reprove,  the  Royal 
Society's  treatment  of  Franklin's  great  discovery ;  his  political 
affinities,  for  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  were  of  the  Wedder- 
burne  school,  and  those  prejudices  and  partialities  which  influ- 
ence most  men,  imparting  a  tinge  to  their  feelings  and  clouding 
their  judgments,  were  in  sympathy  with  the  king's  attorney- 
general  in  his  signally  notorious  arraignment  of  Franklin 
before  the  British  nation.*  Whoever  looks  at  his  likeness  in 
the  life  just  published  by  his  son,  will  see  more  of  the  expres- 
sion of  a  lover  of  truth  and  nature,  than  of  a  servile  hanger-on 
to  monarchy  and  aristocracy.  Its  pages  tell  us  also,  that  in  his 
college  days  he  planned,  with  Coleridge  and  others,  a  settle- 
ment in  this  Western  world,  as  Hampden  and  Cromwell  had 
once  done.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  best  informed  man  upon  the 
greatest  variety  of  subjects  of  his  day ;  and,  if  we  mistake  not, 
will  in  time  be  judged  more  charitably  by  our  countrymen. 

But  what  about  this  book  which  tells  us  so  much  that  we  did 
not  know  before  of  Peter  Collinson,  without  any  reference  to 
him  in  the  title-page  ? 

Its  first  few  pages  are  devoted  to  a  brief  sketch  of  the  pro- 
gress of  botany  in  North  America — comprehensive  and  con- 
densed— beginning  with  the  work  of  Jac.  Cornutus  on  the 
plants  of  Canada,  published  in  1635,  and  John  Josselyn's  New 
England  rarities  of  1672,  and  coming  down  to  the  doings  of  the 
"accomplished  and  indefatigable"  Asa  Gray  now  in  medias 
res.  In  looking  over  this  sketch  it  is  interesting  to  see  such 
names  as  those  of  Logan,  Clayton,  Golden,  Mitchell,  and 
Muhlenberg,  intimately  connected  with  the  history  of  natural 
science. 

We  next  find  a  biographical  sketch  of  John  Bartram,  princi- 
pally taken  from  a  work  by  his  son  ;  followed  by  a  description 
of  a  visit  to  him  at  the  age  of  seventy,  purporting  to  be  from 

*  Those  who  search  out  the  secret  springs  of  action  which  produce 
great  events,  may  discover  here  what  gave  that  intenseness  to  the  animo- 
sity which  prepared  our  countrymen  for  blood. 


11 

the  pen  of  a  Russian  gentleman,  which  is  a  perfect  daguerreo- 
type picture  of  him  and  his  surroundings,  giving  us  an  equally 
life-like  sketch  of  the  inner  as  of  the  outer  man.* 

*  As  this  paper  is  a  literary  curiosity,  we  copy  a  letter  from  "  the 
honourable  and  venerable  Samuel  Breck,  of  Philadelphia,"  to  be  found  in 
a  note  at  page  44  of  the  memorials,  which  gives  the  following  account  of 
Hector  Saint  John  de  Crevecoeur,  who  published  letters  as  an  American 
Farmer,  and  is  now  ascertained  to  have  once  appeared  as  Iwan  Alexio- 
witz,  the  Kussian  gentleman  referred  to. 

"  In  the  year  1787  (says  Mr.  Breck)  I  arrived  at  Paris  from  the  Royal 
and  Military  College  of  Soreze,  in  the  then  province  of  Languedoc,  where 
I  had  spent  more  than  four  years.  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  was  our 
plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  Louis  XVI.,  was  travelling  in  Italy.  A 
young  Virginian,  Mr.  Short,  received  me  in  the  minister's  name,  being 
his  secretary,  and  made  me  acquainted  with  a  very  amiable  Frenchman, 
who  had  resided  in  the  United  States,  and  written  there  a  work,  entitled, 
'Letters  from  an  American  Farmer/  flattering  and  favourable  to  our 
country.  This  gentleman  was  Hector  Saint  John  de  Crevecoeur.  His 
work  was  exceedingly  popular  in  France,  and  the  fame  acquired  by  it 
was  a  passport  to  the  highest  circles.  The  romantic  descriptions  in  which 
he  had  indulged,  in  reference  to  the  manners  and  primitive  habits  of  our 
countrymen,  made  some  of  the  great  lords  and  ladies  of  Paris  desirous 
to  see  a  native  American :  among  others  a  Polish  princess  took  a  fancy  to 
see  me,  upon  St.  John's  report  to  her  of  his  acquaintance  with  me,  and 
invited  me  to  dine  with  her.  I  went  there  accompanied  by  Mons. 
Crevecoeur. 

"  That  gentleman  took  me  another  day  to  dine  with  Mons.  De  Beaume- 
noir,  at  his  apartments  at  the  Hotel  des  Invalides,  of  which  he  was  gover- 
nor, and  who  had  a  daughter  about  to  embark  for  New  York,  in  the  same 
packet  that  Mr.  De  Crevecceur  and  I  had  both  taken  passage.  She  was 
coming  out  to  America,  under  St.  John's  protection,  to  marry  M.  De  La 
Forest,  who  was  then  French  consul  at  New  York,  and  afterwards  became 
a  man  of  some  note,  as  a  diplomatist  under  Napoleon,  who  raised  him  to 
the  dignity  of  a  baron  of  his  empire.  St.  John  himself  had  been  made 
consul-general  by  King  Louis. 

"  That  kind  friend  took  me,  one  morning,  to  visit  Brissot  De  "Warville, 
who  served  Philip  d'Egalite  (father  of  king  Louis  Phillippe)  in  some 
capacity,  and  had  apartments  at  his  residence,  the  Palais  Royal.  There 
we  were  received  by  Brissot.  The  Marquis  de  Valady,  son-in-law  of  the 
Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  presented  me  with  a  copy  of  St.  John's  letters, 
which  I  still  possess.  St.  John  was  by  nature,  by  education,  and  by  his 
writings,  a  philanthropist ;  a  man  of  serene  temper  and  pure  benevolence ; 
the  milk  of  human  kindness  circulated  in  every  vein ;  of  manners  unas- 
suming, prompt  to  serve,  slow  to  censure ;  intelligent,  beloved,  and  highly 


12 

The  greater  part  of  the  volume  is  then  taken  up  with  the 
correspondence  of  John  Bartram.  The  reminiscences  of  Hum- 
phry Marshall  and  his  correspondence  occupy  comparatively 
few  pages,  hut  all  instructive  and  interesting. 

The  letters  of  Peter  Collinson  spread  over  a  period  of  thirty- 
four  years,  and  furnish  a  large  portion  of  the  materiel  of  which 
the  work  is  composed.  This  materiel  has  been  reclaimed  from 
the  dust,  and  mould,  and  lumber,  of  seventy  years  gone  by, 
furbished  up,  arranged,  and  presented  to  us  in  an  intelligible 

worthy  of  the  esteem  and  respect  he  everywhere  received.  His  society 
on  shipboard  was  a  treasure. 

"  He  had  a  daughter,  whose  early  history  was  marked  by  passages 
sufficiently  curious  and  eventful  to  make  her  the  heroine  of  a  novel.  She 
married  Mr.  Otto,  a  French  gentleman,  who  was  an  attache",  I  think,  to 
the  Consular  Office  ;  and  who  rose  under  the  revolutionary  government 
of  France  to  considerable  diplomatic  rank,  even  to  the  embassy  to  England 
for  a  short  time." 

The  voyage  above  referred  to  is  the  same  mentioned  by  Mr.  Breck  in 
his  interesting  letter  recently  published,  wherein  he  describes  New  York 
as  it  appeared  on  his  landing  there,  before  we  had  a  Constitution. 

As  it  cost  no  little  effort  to  trace  the  real  authorship  of  the  letter  pur- 
porting to  have  been  written  by  "  a  Russian  gentleman/'  the  result  is 
here  added;  in  a  letter  from  the  Editor  of  the  "  memorials." 

WEST  CHESTER,  April  17,  1851. 

Dear  Sir :  I  think  I  mentioned  to  you,  soon  after  the  publication  of  the 
Memorials  of  Bartram  and  Marshall,  that  I  had  some  doubts — even  while 
compiling  that  work,  whether  the  interesting  account  of  &Visit  to  John  Bar- 
tram,  by  "  a  Russian  gentleman,"  named  IWAN  ALEXIOWITZ,  was  exactly 
what  it  purported  to  be.  The  fidelity  of  the  sketch  I  could  not  doubt.  But 
the  failure  of  all  my  inquiries  to  learn  any  thing  of  such  a  visitor — together 
with  the  peculiarity  of  the  name  (which  seems  evidently  coined  for  the 
occasion,) — led  me  to  suspect  that  the  "  Russian  gentleman"  was  a  ficti- 
tious character ;  and  that  HECTOR  ST.  JOHN  himself  might  have  been  the 
writer  of  the  narrative.  This  suspicion  was  greatly  strengthened  by 
some  contemporaneous  criticisms  of  ST.  JOHN'S  productions,  which  I 
afterwards  saw  in  an  old  English  catalogue  of  rare  books, — wherein  that 
gentleman  was  charged  with  the  practice  of  writing  under  feigned  names 
and  characters :  and  I  have  recently  come  into  possession  of  an  auto- 
graph letter  of  ST.  JOHN,  which  entirely  confirms  me  in  the  opinion,  that 
the  Visitor  and  Eulogist  of  "  the  celebrated  Pennsylvania  Botanist,"  was 
no  other  than  the  amiable  and  enthusiastic  author  of  the  Letters  from 
an  American  Farmer. 

The  Atitograph  referred  to,  is  a  letter  to  the  sons  of  JOHN  BARTRAM 


13 

and  attractive  shape,  without  any  apparent  ambition  on  the 
part  of  the  editor,  but  to  do  justice  to  his  subject.  His  in- 
tense love  of  this  is  apparent  from  the  care,  and  time,  and 
labour  bestowed  upon  it.  That  it  was  worth  all  it  cost  to  bring 
these  mouldering  relics  to  light,  every  man  of  science,  every 
man  of  sense,  and  every  man  of  heart  will  say,  who  reads  the 
book. 

Some  have  thought  it  required  sifting,  and  that  there  was 
some  chaff  which  might  be  dispensed  with  in  another  edition. 
This  may  have  been  the  general  opinion  on  its  first  appearance  ; 
and  we  confess  ourselves  to  have  been  of  this  mind  until  after 
perusing  it  carefully.  But  the  oftener  we  read  it,  the  more 
difficult  do  we  find  the  task  to  point  out  anything  that  should 
be  omitted — the  more  unwilling  are  we  to  part  with  a  single 
page  or  an  individual  letter.  It  abounds  in  those  blessed  little 
amenities  which  go  to  make  life  happy  and  a  book  entertaining  ; 
intermixed  with  ten  thousand  minutiae  of  the  observations,  stu- 
dies and  speculations  of  diligent  inquirers  into  the  secrets  of 
Natural  History,  at  the  first  dawn,  as  it  were,  of  the  sun  of 
science.  Its  naivetS  and  simplicity,  nay,  its  very  imperfections 
even,  add  to  its  interest,  after  we  become  a  little  accustomed 
to  them,  inasmuch  as  they  make  it  all  a  reality,  taking  us  into 
the  actual  presence  of  those  who  lived  a  hundred  years  agone. 

The  editor  cannot  fail  to  attract  to  himself  some  portion  of 

(viz.  WILLIAM  and  JOHN),  and  is  chiefly  filled  with  inquiries  concerning 
plants  and  seeds  ;  but  commences  as  follows : — 

"  NEW  YORK,  26th  December,  1783. 

"  GENTLEMEN  :  I  have  just  received  your  kind  letter ;  I  am  very  happy  to 
think  you  still  remember  the  connection  which  once  subsisted  between  your 
industrious  parent  and  me.  His  industry,  simplicity,  and  virtue,  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  of  recording  in  a  book,  called  Letters  from  an  Ameri- 
can Farmer,  published  in  London  two  years  ago,  the  translation  of  which 
is  now  printing  in  Paris." 

This  extract  seems,  to  me,  to  be  conclusive  of  the  question  of  the 
authorship  of  that  graphic  sketch  of  the  Botanical  Patriarch  of  our  coun- 
try, hitherto  attributed  to  a  Muscovite  traveller. 

Very  Respectfully, 

WM.  DARLINGTON. 
To  WM.  II.  DILLINGHAM,  Philadelphia. 

2 


14 

the  admiration  he  has  awakened  for  those  whose  memory  he 
embalms.     The  work  is  worthy  of  the  expense,  good  taste,  and 
artistic  skill  with  which  it  has  been  presented  to  us  by  the  pub- 
lishers* if  it  were  only  to  illustrate  the  truth  of  what  Linnaeus 
said  of  Bartram,  and  what  Fothergill  said  of  Collinson's  rela- 
tions to  him — "  The  greatest  natural  botanist  in  the  world." 
This  from  one  to  whom  botanists  concede  the  title  of  "  The  im- 
mortal Swede,"  is,  most  truly — Laus,  laudari  a  laudato  viro — 
the  greatest  natural  botanist  in  the  world,  in  the  time  of  Lin- 
naeus, upon  the  authority  of  Linnaeus !     And  Peter  Collinson 
"  may  almost  be  said  to  have  created  him  such  !"     The  lovers 
of  nature  everywhere,  to  whom  the  London  merchant  pointed 
him  out,  regarded  him  with  admiration  ;  the  savans  of  Europe 
anxiously  sought  his  correspondence ;  nobles  and  princes  patron- 
ized his  labours,  and  learned  societies  conferred  upon  him  the 
highest  testimonials  of  esteem.     He  was  ^not  only  a  man  of 
science,  but  a  man  of  genius.     He  was  also  endowed  with  ex- 
traordinary capacities  of  body  as  well  as  mind,  enabling  him  to 
endure  fatigue,  encounter   danger,  overcome   difficulties,  un- 
dergo privation,  and  persevere  to  the  end,  whatever  great 
object  he  had  in  view.     Like  Newton,  in  simple  facts  he  saw 
great  principles,  and  traced  them  out  with  profound  interest 
and  untiring  assiduity.    Thus  he  became  a  man  of  great  attain- 
ments.    But  he  was  not  only  a  man  of  science,  a  man  of  genius, 
and  a  man  of  great  capacities — he  was  a  man  of  great  virtues. 
His  life  is  scarce  more  distinguished  by  his  discoveries  in  the 
secrets  of  nature,  than  by  his  reverence  for  the  great  Author 
of  those  secrets,  and  love  of  his  fellow  creatures,  for  whose 
enjoyment  in  common  with  his  own,  they  were  in  infinite  wis- 
dom contrived.     His   enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  study  of 
nature's  handiwork  did  not  prevent  his  attention  to  the  com- 
mon business  of  life,  the  cultivation  of  his  fields,  provision  for 
his  family,  building  his  house  "  with  his  own  hands,"  "train- 
ing up  his  children  in  the  way  in  which  they  should  go,"  and 
settling  them  in  life.     He  was  prudent,  temperate,  charitable, 
hospitable,  maintaining  a  strict  regard  for  the  rights  of  others, 
and  being  scrupulously  attentive  to  all  the  proprieties  of  life. 
It  is  among  the  most  striking  and  interesting  things  to  be  re- 
marked upon  the  long  and  cherished  intimacy  between  him 
*  Messrs.  Lindsay  &  Blakiston. 


15 

and  the  excellent  Peter  Collinson,  that  Peter's  early  letters 
abound  with  oft  repeated  and  emphatic  cautions  to  his  friend 
John,  not  to  allow  these  delightful  studies  of  nature,  equally 
cherished  by  them  both,  to  interfere  with  attention  to  the 
duties  of  life,  industry  in  business,  economy,  and  care  of  his 
private  affairs ;  and  that  the  result  should  have  been,  while 
the  London  merchant,  the  prudent  counsellor,  was  successful 
in  business  for  a  time,  amassed  a  large  estate,  and  to  the  last 
was  highly  and  universally  esteemed  for  substantial  virtues, 
fell  himself  into  the  enticing  snare  against  which  he  had  BO 
anxiously  guarded  his  friend,  leaving  an  estate  greatly  dilapi- 
dated when  he  died  ;  while  John  Bartram  held  on  to  the  last, 
with  his  industries,  economies,  and  care  of  his  estate.  The 
arrears  of  his  claims  upon  Peter  Collinson  had  accumulated  to 
an  amount  which  gave  great  anxiety  to  the  son  who  succeeded 
him,  and  drew  out  the  melancholy  fact,  that  his  father  had 
felt  himself  obliged,  at  over  seventy  years  of  age,  after  a  life 
so  much  devoted  to  the  public,  to  ask  a  small  pension  from  the 
king,  and  that  it  had  been  denied  him. 

Our  authority  for  what  Linnaeus  said  of  Bartram  is  Francis 
Lieber.  Such  applause  from  one  so  much  applauded,  must  of 
itself  cause  naturalists  to  look  with  intense  interest  into  memo- 
rials of  his  life  and  doings.  All  liberal  and  inquiring  minds 
must  be  interested  to  know  something  of  his  biography,  of 
whom  one  of  the  highest  compliments  which  could  be  paid  to 
so  good  a  man  as  Peter  Collinson  by  the  just  and  discriminat- 
ing Fothergill,  was  to  say,  that  he  made  John  Bartram  what 
he  was. 

He  was  of  the  third  generation  after  those  who  came  over 
with  Penn,  and  settled  as  agriculturists  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Delaware  along  side  of  their  predecessors,  the  Swedes,  and 
where  the  two  races  have  since  mingled  their  blood  and  ex- 
tended themselves,  constituting  now  an  industrious,  virtuous 
and  thriving  population,  with  agricultural  improvements,  and  a 
general  state  of  worldly  prosperity  arising  from  this  source, 
unsurpassed  in  any  quarter  of  the  Union.  In  his  early  career 
he  was  coteniporary  with  James  Logan,  who  was  himself  a  dis- 
tinguished naturalist,  and  one  of  the  first  to  appreciate  the 
great  idea  of  Linnaeus ;  having  tested  by  his  own  experiments, 


16 

early,  the  truth  of  the  sexes  of  plants.  This  learned  and  emi- 
nent man  took  a  deep  interest  in  John  Bartram's  devotion  to 
natural  science,  and  helped  to  give  him  character  with  Peter 
Collinson,  and  make  him  known  to  the  savans  abroad,  to  whom, 
at  that  time,  an  opportunity  to  correspond  with  a  great  natural 
botanist  in  the  new  world  was  of  inestimable  value.  lie  was 
also,  as  we  have  already  seen,  cotemporary  with  Benjamin 
Franklin,  who  contributed  in  no  small  degree  with  Logan  and 
Collinson  to  extend  his  reputation  abroad.  Indeed  it  may 
with  truth  be  said  that  there  was  scarcely  an  individual  in  this 
country,  after  Logan  and  Franklin,  who  made  himself  more 
highly  esteemed  in  Europe  in  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  than 
this  Pennsylvania  farmer. 

The  ancient  county  of  Chester,  adjoining  Philadelphia  on  the 
south  and  west,  was  originally  settled  by  the  countrymen  of 
Linnaeus,  and  their  descendants  still  nourish  in  the  same  region. 
When  William  Penn  came  over,  many  of  his  agricultural  friends, 
with  ample  means  and  the  characteristic  virtue  of  thrift,  located 
themselves,  as  before  observed,  in  this  county.  But  little  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  has  rolled  by,  and  there  are  now  near 
a  hundred  houses  of  worship  of  the  society  of  Friends  in  what 
was  once  Chester  county ;  the  county  of  Delaware  having  since 
been  divided  off  from  it  on  the  south-east.  This  county  gave 
birth  to  John  Bartram  and  Humphry  Marshall,  and  it  was  fit 
and  proper  that  their  natal  soil  should  also  produce  for  them  a 
memorialist.  Its  capital  town,  from  whence  this  work  origi- 
nates, is  not  a  little  signalized  for  its  attention  to  botanical 
and  horticultural  pursuits.  It  has  its  Hall  of  the  Cabinet 
of  Natural  Science  and  its  Horticultural  Hall,  with  extensive 
collections  in  the  various  departments  of  the  works  of  nature. 
A  taste  for  the  study  of  the  natural  sciences,  and  special  de- 
light in  the  cultivation  of  trees,  plants,  fruits  and  flowers,  would 
seem  to  be  indigenous  with  the  dwellers  in  that  region.  Their 
anniversary  horticultural  exhibition  is  a  great  gala  day,  bring- 
ing together  thousands  of  the  substantial  citizens,  with  wives 
and  children,  their  countenances  lighted  up  with  a  smile  which 
indicates  the  joy  they  take  in  it. 

Bartram  and  Marshall  were  farmers,  and  the  sons  of  farmers ; 
they  cultivated  their  own  acres  and  built  their  own  houses 


17 

"with  their  own  hands."  The  woodcuts  of  these  houses  as 
they  now  stand,  which  we  see  in  Dr.  Darlington's  book,  give 
some  idea  of  the  substantial  and  the  comfortable  which  pre- 
vailed among  Friends  in  the  construction  of  their  dwellings,  in 
Chester  county,  a  hundred  years  gone  by.  In  mind,  and  in 
reputation,  these  sons  of  the  soil  and  distinguished  naturalists 
were  also  self-cultivated,  self-educated  men.  Brought  into 
intimate  contact,  by  their  daily  avocations,  with  some  of  the 
most  interesting  works  of  nature,  they  did  not  close  their 
eyes,  as  so  many  of  us  do,  to  the  beauties  and  wonders  by 
which  they  were  surrounded.  They  regarded  with  scrutinizing 
curiosity  the  springing  blade,  the  opening  bud,  the  blooming 
flower,  the  ripening  fruit,  with  which  nature  seemed  alive  in 
all  but  infinite  varieties.  They  soon  found  it  to  be  among 
their  highest  earthly  pleasures  to  make  themselves  acquainted 
with  the  secrets,  principles,  and  unnumbered  varieties  of  the 
system,  in  this  department  of  nature's  wonder-workings.  The 
enthusiasm  with  which  respectively  and  successively  they  de- 
voted themselves  to  the  study,  and  the  industry  and  perseve- 
rance with  which  they  followed  it,  was  accompanied  with  a 
modesty,  prudence,  worth,  and  other  sterling  virtues,  which 
must  endear  their  memory  'to  all  who  read  their  lives,  and  give 
it  a  place  in  the  inner  shrine  of  every  naturalist.  Linnaeus, 
Sir  Hans  Sloane,  Solander,  Philip  Miller,  Gronovius,  and  Dil- 
lenius  were  among  the  correspondents  of  John  Bartram.  Dr. 
Fothergill,  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  and  Dr.  Franklin  were  among 
those  of  Humphry  Marshall. 

No  two  men  in  this  country  ever  contributed  so  much  to  the 
botanical  treasures  of  England,  nor  anything  like  so  much  to 
the  chief  ornaments  of  her  grounds. 

In  proof  of  Bartram's  genius,  some  letters  of  this  self-educated 
Pennsylvania  farmer  may  be  cited,  which  are  scarcely  surpassed 
in  beauty  of  thought  and  style  by  anything  in  our  language. 

The  following  passage  from  the  work  before  us,  teaches  us 
how  naturalists  give  their  hearts  to  each  other : 

In  a  letter  from  *  Dr.  Garden  to  Limueus,  dated  Charleston, 

*  In  Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  there  is  a  notice  of  the  celebrated 
Dr.  James  Parsons,  of  the  last  century,  where  we  find  in  an  Eloge  by  Dr. 

2* 


18 

South  Carolina,  March,  15,  1755,  that  gentleman  says :  "When 
I  came  to  New  York,  I  immediately  inquired  for  Coldenhamia, 
the  seat  of  that  most  eminent  botanist,  Mr.  Golden.  Here, 
by  good  fortune,  I  first  met  with  John  Bartram,  returning 
from  the  Blue  Mountains,  as  they  are  called.  How  grateful 
was  such  a  meeting  to  me  !  And  how  unusual  in  this  part  of 

Maty,  a  list  of  the  intimacies  which  he  formed  with  "  some  of  the  greatest 
men  of  his  time,"  which  concludes  with  the  names  of  COLLINSON  and 
GARDEN — and  again,  in  speaking  of  his  correspondence  with  men  of 
"the  most  distinguished  rank  in  science,"  DR.  GARDEN  is  placed  along 
side  of  Buffon,  Beccaria,  &c.,  by  Nichols  himself,  who  adds  in  another 
Note. :"  Mrs.  Parsons  had  several  letters  subscribed  by  the  illustrious 
names  above  mentioned ;  and  one  from  Dr.  Garden  shall  be  here  inserted." 
The  letter  is  then  given  at  length.  Such  a  selection  was  a  high  compli- 
ment to  this  name,  and  as  the  work  in  which  it  appears  is  rarely  to  be  met 
with  here,  some  extracts  are  presented,  which  speak  of  -Golden,  Clayton 
and  Bartram. 

It  is  dated — CHARLES  TOWN,  South  Carolina,  May  5th  1755. 

"It  is  now  about  three  years  and  a  half  since  I  first  arrived  in  South 
Carolina,  where  I  have  practiced  Physic  ever  since,  and  employed  every 
spare  hour  in  Botany ;  but  my  progress  has  been  much  retarded  for  want 
of  the  proper  books  and  assistance.  There  is  only  my  learned  and  in- 
genious friend,  the  honourable  Dr.  Bull,  who  knows  the  least  iota  of 
Botany  or  any  part  of  Natural  History  here,  which,  with  my  small 
Botanical  Library,  (which  only  consisted  of  Tournefort,  Ray,  and  Lin. 
Fund.  Botan.  with  the  Flora  Virgin.  Gron.)  was  a  great  hindrance  and 
loss  to  a  beginner.  I  have  lately  had  a  copy  of  all  Linnaeus' s  works,  ex- 
cept the  late  performance  of  the  species  plantarum,  which  I  have  only 
just  heard  of  in  a  letter  from  a  German  correspondent.  This  last  year 
I  was  obliged  to  leave  Carolina,  and  go  to  the  Northern  Colonies,  in 
search  of  a  cooler  and  freer  air,  on  the  account  of  health ;" — "  In  the 
Province  of  New  York  I  met  with  the  Honourable  Cadwallader  Golden, 
a  truly  great  Philosopher,  and  very  accurate  and  ingenious  Botanist ;  as 
his  Philosophical  performances,  and  his  'Genera  Plantarum'  published 
in  the  '  Acta  Upsaliensa.'>^v^-»-^' 

"  Mr.  Clayton  in  Virginia,  and  John  Bartram  in  Pennsylvania,  are  the 
only  Botanists  or  Naturalists  that  I  know  of,  besides  Mr.  Colden,  on  the 
Continent.  And  I  doubt  not  that  you  are  well  acquainted  with  the  cha- 
racter and  genius  of  both  these  men.  Mr.  Bartram  is  certainly  a  most 
surprising  man,  who,  without  any  assistance  of  conversation  or  of  books 
(he  understands  a  very  little  Botanical  Latin)  should  have  arrived  at  so 
great  a  knowledge  of  plants,  especially  in  a  systematical  way.  It  is  a 
great  pity  that  he  does  not  understand  Mr.  Loefling's  Dissertation  on 
Gems :  for  I  am  fully  persuaded  he  is  amongst  the  best  qualified  men  to  im- 


19 

the  world  !  What  congratulations  and  what  salutations  passed 
between  us  !  How  happy  should  I  be  to  pass  my  life  with  men 
so  distinguished  by  genius,  acuteness,  and  liberality,  as  well  as 
by  eminent  botanical  learning  and  experience  !  Men,  in  whom 
the  greatest  knowledge  and  skill  are  united  to  the  most  amiable 
candour, 


Anirnce,  qiiales  neque  candidiores 


Terra  tulit.' 

Such  an  estimate  of  Bartram,  and  such  a  report  of  him  to  the 
great  master  of  the  science  in  which  they  all  rejoiced,  is  con- 
firmed by  the  following  letter,  which  bears  date  in  1762,  and 
shows  that  their  kind  feelings  were  reciprocal.  If  there  is 
anything  to  surpass  it  in  our  language,  it  has  not  met  our  eye. 
The  letter  is  from  John  Bartram  to  Dr.  Garden. 

"  My  dear  worthy  friend,  I  am  much  affected  every  time 
that  I  read  thy  pious  reflections  on  the  wonderful  works  of  the 
omnipotent  and  omniscient  Creator.  The  more  we  search  and 
accurately  examine  his  works  in  nature,  the  more  wisdom  we 
discover,  whether  we  observe  the  mineral,  vegetable,  or  animal 
kingdom.  But,  as  I  am  chiefly  employed  with  the  vegetable, 
I  shall  enlarge  more  upon  it. 

"  What  charming  colours  appear  in  the  various  tribes,  in  the 
regular  succession  of  the  vernal  and  autumnal  flowers — these  so 
nobly  bold,  those  delicately  languid  !  What  a  glow  is  enkin- 
dled in  some,  what  a  gloss  shines  in  others  !  With  what  a  mas- 
terly skill  is  every  one  of  the  varying  tints  disposed !  Here, 
they  seem  to  be  thrown  on  with  an  easy  dash  of  security  and 
freedom ;  there,  they  are  adjusted  by  the  nicest  touches.  The 
verdure  of  the  empalement,  or  the  shading  of  the  petals,  impart 
new  liveliness  to  the  whole,  whether  they  are  blended  or 
arranged.  Some  are  intersected  with  delicate  stripes,  or  stud- 
ded with  radiant  spots ;  others  affect  to  be  genteelly  powdered, 

prove  that  part  of  the  science.  How  often  have  I  been  pleased,  delighted, 
and  instructed  by  many  of  his  lively  and  strong  natural  thoughts  on 
gems,  as  to  their  structure,  vxe,  time,  and  properties  !  I  shall  not  detain 
you  longer,  but  again  beg  leave  to  request  the  favour  of  your  correspon- 
dence, and  your  forgiveness  for  this  trouble.  I  am,  with  great  esteem, 
Sir,  your  most  obedient  and  very  humble  servant, 

ALEXANDER  GARDEN. 


20 

or  neatly  fringed  ;  others  are  plain  in  their  aspect,  and  please 
with  their  naked  simplicity.  Some  are  arrayed  in  purple ; 
some  charm  with  the  virgin's  white ;  others  are  dashed  with 
crimson ;  while  others  are  robed  in  scarlet.  Some  glitter  like 
silver  lace ;  others  shine  as  if  embroidered  with  gold.  Some 
rise  with  curious  cups,  or  pendulous  bells  ;  some  are  disposed  in 
spreading  umbels,  others  crowd  in  spiked  clusters ;  some  are 
dispersed  on  spreading  branches  of  lofty  trees,  on  dangling 
catkins ;  others  sit  contented  on  the  humble  shrub ;  some  seated 
on  high  in  the  twining  vine,  and  wafted  to  and  fro ;  others  gar- 
nish the  prostrate,  creeping  plant.  All  these  have  their  par- 
ticular excellences ;  some  for  the  beauty  of  their  flowers  ;  others 
their  sweet  scent ;  many  the  elegance  of  foliage,  or  the  good- 
ness of  their  fruit ;  some  the  nourishment  that  their  roots  afford 
us ;  others  please  the  fancy  with  their  regular  growth ;  some 
are  admired  for  their  odd  appearance,  and  many  that  offend  the 
taste,  smell,  and  sight,  too,  are  of  virtue  in  physic. 

"  But  when  we  nearly  examine  the  various  motions  of  plants 
and  flowers,  in  their  evening  contraction  and  morning  expan- 
sion, they  seem  to  be  operated  upon  by  something  superior  to 
only  heat  and  cold,  or  shade  and  sunshine ;  such  as  the  sur- 
prising tribes  of  the  sensitive  plants,  and  the  petals  of  many 
flowers  shutting  close  up  in  rainy  weather,  or  in  the  evening 
until  the  female  part  is  fully  impregnated :  and  if  we  won't 
allow  them  real  feeling,  or  what  we  call  sense,  it  must  be  some 
action  next  degree  inferior  to  it,  for  which  we  want  a  proper 
epithet,  or  the  immediate  finger  of  God,  to  whom  be  all  glory 
and  praise."  ****** 

"  I  don't  dwell  so  long  on  the  vegetable  kingdom,  as  though 
I  thought  the  wisdom  and  power  of  God  were  only  manifest 
therein. .  The  contemplation  of  the  mineral,  and  especially  the 
animal,  will  equally  incline  the  pious  heart  to  overflow  with 
daily  adorations  and  praises  to  the  grand  Giver  and  Supporter 
of  universal  life.  But  what  amazing  distant  glories  are  dis- 
closed in  a  midnight  scene  !  Vast  are  the  bodies  which  roll  in 
the  immense  expanse  !  Orbs  beyond  orbs  without  number,  suns 
beyond  suns,  systems  beyond  systems,  with  their  proper  inhabi- 
tants of  the  great  Jehovah's  empire,  how  can  we  look  at  these 
without  amazement,  or  contemplate  the  Divine  Majesty  that 


21 

rules  them,  without  the  most  humble  adoration?  Esteeming 
ourselves,  with  all  our  wisdom,  but  as  one  of  the  smallest  atoms 
of  dust  praising  the  living  God,  the  great  I  AM." 

The  promptings  of  this  beautiful  effusion  will  be  better  under- 
stood perhaps  by  here  perusing  one  or  two  extracts  from 
Dr.  Garden's  prior  letters  to  him  : 

"  How  eminently  happy  are  those  hours,  which  the  humble 
and  philosophic  mind  spends  in  investigating  and  contemplating 
the  inconceivable  beauties  and  mechanism  of  the  works  of  nature ; 
the  true  manifestations  of  that  supremely  wise  and  powerful 
Agent  who  daily  upholds  and  blesses  us. 

"  May  that  Fatherly  Being  continue  to  enlighten  your  mind, 
till  that  hour  come,  when  the  parting  of  this  veil  will  lay  before 
your  eyes  a  new  and  more  glorious  field  of  contemplation,  and 
still  more  unutterable  sights  of  bliss." 

Dr.  Garden  had  before  written  to  him  in  these  words : 

"  I  rejoice  with  you,  on  your  increasing  collection  of  these 
curious  productions  of  the  all-wise  hand  of  our  omnipotent 
Creator.  May  your  soul  be  daily  more  filled  with  an  humble 

admiration  of  his  works,  and  your  lips  exercised  in  his  praise." 
****** 

"  When  this  scene  of  things  passes  away,  and  the  great  and 
first  Author  of  all  leads  us  to  fields  of  a  more  rich  and  fertile 
clime,  there  shall  we  proceed  with  fresh  vigour  and  enlarged 
faculties  to  view  him  nearer,  worship  and  adore  more  strongly, 
and  live  more  willingly  within  the  pale  of  universal  love.  How 
great  is  our  God !  How  wonderful  are  his  works,  sought  out 
of  all  them  that  take  pleasure  therein.  Your  letters,  particularly, 
give  me  pleasure.  They  always  contain  something  new  and 
entertaining  on  some  new-discovered  work  of  God." 

We  now  cite  some  passages  from  the  correspondence,  to  show 
how  Peter  Collinson  helped  John  Bartram,  and  was  in  truth 
the  great  means  whereby  he  became  so  distinguished  as  to  be 
"the  greatest  natural  botanist  in  the  world."  Peter  Collin- 
son's  first  published  letter  is  dated  in  1734.  In  1736,  we  find 
this  paragraph :  "  Thy  kind  neighbour,  James  Logan,  is  so 
good  as  to  order  me  to  buy  thee  Parkinson  8  Herbal.  He 
has  shown  a  very  tender  regard  for  thee,  in  his  letter  to  me. 
It  may  look  grateful,  every  now  and  then,  to  call  and  inquire 


after  thy  friend  Logan's  welfare.     He  is  a  great  man  in  every 
capacity,  and  for  whom  I  have  the  highest  value." 

A.hout  the  same  time  James  Logan  writes  thus  to  the  young 
but  rising  naturalist : 

"  FRIEND  J.  BARTRAM — Last  night,  in  the  twilight,  I  re- 
ceived the  enclosed,  and  opened  it  by  mistake.  Last  year 
Peter  sent  me  some  tables,  which  I  never  examined  till  since  I 
last  saw  thee.  They  are  six  very  large  sheets,  in  which  the 
author  *  [Linnaeus]  digests  all  the  productions  of  nature  in 


"  His  method  in  the  vegetables  is  altogether  new,  for  he 

*  In  a  letter  to  Col.  Byrd,  a  distinguished  citizen  of  Virginia,  in  1739, 
Bar  tram  says: 

"  I  have  this  spring  made  several  microscopical  observations  upon  the 
male  and  female  parts  in  vegetables,  to  oblige  some  ingenious  botanists 
in  Leyden,  who  requested  that  favour  of  me,  which  I  hope  I  have  per- 
formed to  their  satisfaction,  and  as  a  mechanical  demonstration  of  the 
certainty  of  this  hypothesis  of  the  different  sex,  in  all  plants  that  have 
come  under  my  notice. 

*  *        *     I  have  made  several  successful  experiments,  of  joining 
several  species  of  the  same  genus,  whereby  I  have  obtained  curious  mixed 
colours  in  flowers,  never  known  before ;  but  this  requires  an  accurate 
observation  and  judgment,  to  know  the  precise  time.        * 

I  hope  by  these  practical  observations  to  open  a  gate  into  a  very  large 
field  of  experimental  knowledge,  which,  if  judiciously  improved,  may  be  a 
considerable  addition  to  the  beauty  of  the  florist's  garden."— Mem.  p.  315. 

Writing  to  Philip  Miller  in  1755,  Bartram  thus  refers  to  this  subject. 

"  I  take  thy  offer  very  kindly,  to  assist  me  in  understanding  LINN^EUS'S 
system,  which  I  am  acquainted  with  in  some  degree ;  having  several 
books  of  his  setting  forth,  which  Dr.  GRONOVIUS,  my  good  friend,  hath 
sent  me  ;  and  Mons.  DALIBARD  sent  me  his  Catalogue  of  plants  growing 
near  Paris ;  and  HILL  hath  nearly  translated  LINN^GUS'S  Characters. 
But  I  find  many  plants  that  do  not  answer  to  any  of  his  Genera,  and  are 
really  new. 

I  have  an  account  that  he  hath  published,  lately,  two  books  containing 
all  our  North  American  plants  which  KALM  observed,  when  he  was  with 
us.  I  showecl  him  many  that  he  said  were  new  Genera,  and  that  LIN- 
NAEUS must  make  many  alterations,  when  he  was  by  him  more  truly  in- 
formed of  their  true  characters,  as  I  should  soon  see  when  they  were 
printed.  I  long  to  see  these  books, — to  see  if  they  have  done  me  justice. 
as  KALM  promised  me.  Dr.  GRONOVIUS  promised  to  send  them  to  me,  as 
soon  as  they  came  to  his  hand.'1 — Ib.  p.  377. 


23 

takes  all  his  distinctions  from  the  stamina  and  the  styles,  the 
first  of  which  he  calls  husbands,  and  the  other  wives. 

"  The  performance  is  very  curious,  and  at  this  time  worth 
thy  notice.  I  would  send  it  to  thee,  but,  being  in  Latin,  it  will 
want  some  explanation,  which  after  I  have  given  thee,  thou 
wilt,  I  believe,  be  fully  able  to  deal  with  it  thyself,  since  thou 
generally  knows  the  plants'  names.  If  thou  wilt  step  to  town 
to-morrow,  thou  wilt  find  me  there  with  them  at  E.  Shippen's, 
or  J.  Pemberton's,  from  twelve  to  three.  I  want  also  to  say 
something  further  to  thee,  on  microscopical  observations. 

"  Thy  real  friend, 

"  J.  LOGAN. 

"  Stenton,  19th  of  June,  1736." 

This  letter  furnishes  the  evidence  that  Peter  Collinson  was 
the  first  one  to  call  Logan's  attention  to  the  great  discovery  of 
Linnaeus,  and  put  the  means  in  his  power  which  led  him  to 
those  experiments  whereby  he  tested  its  truth,  and  made  the 
publication  which  added  so  greatly  to  his  own  fame. 

The  next  year  Peter  concludes  a  letter  to  his  friend  thus : 

"  Now,  dear  John,  I  have  made  some  running  remarks  on 
thy  curious  letter,  which  contains  so  many  fine  remarks,  that  it 
deserved  to  be  read  before  the  Royal  Society ;  and  thee  has 
their  thanks  for  it,  desiring  thee  to  continue  thy  observations, 
and  communicate  them.  I  say  make  no  apology.  Thy  style  is 
much  beyond  what  one  might  expect  from  a  man  of  thy  educa- 
tion. The  facts  are  well  described,  and  very  intelligible." 

In  another,  the  same  year,  he  says  to  him : 

"  Thy  map  of  Schuylkill  is  very  prettily  done,  and  very 
informing  ;  now  I  can  read  and  travel  at  the  same  time.  Lord 
Petre  has  seen  it,  and  is  much  pleased  with  that  and  thy  jour- 
nal ;  one  helps  to  illustrate  the  other.  I  intend  to  communi- 
cate it  to  a  curious  map-maker ;  it  may  be  of  use  to  him  in 
laying  down  that  part  of  the  river  Schuylkill  undescribed." 

March  3,  1741-2.— He  writes : 

"  DEAR  FRIEND  JOHN  : — By  our  good  friend  Captain  Wright, 
I  have  sent  Sir  Hans's  kind  present,  of  his  Natural  History  of 
Jamaica,  in  two  volumes.  These  I  have  put  in  a  box  I  ha«l 
made  on  purpose  for  them,  and  directed  it  on  two  places  for 


24 

thee ;  and  with  it  I  sent  on  board,  in  a  canvass  wrapper,  a 
large  bundle  of  paper,  a  present  from  Dr.  Dillenius,  which,  I 
think,  will  furnish  thee  with  paper  for  specimens,  and  for  seeds, 
for  thy  life  time.  It  is  fine  Dutch  paper,  and  very  fit  for  such 
purposes,  because  it  will  bear  ink." 

(Then,  after  cordially  thanking  him  for  divers  rare  and  curi- 
ous objects  of  Natural  History,  just  received,  a  bare  reference 
to  each  of  which  occupies  two  printed  pages,  he  goes  on,) 

"  I  thank  thee  for  thy  curious  present  of  thy  map,  and  thy 
draught  of  the  fall  of  the  river  Owegos  (?).  I  was  really  both 
delighted  and  surprised  to  Bee  it  so  naturally  done,  and  at  thy 
ingenuity  in  the  performance.  Upon  my  word,  friend  John,  I 
can't  help  admiring  thy  abilities  in  so  many  instances.  I  shall 
be  sparing  to  say  what  more  I  think.  A  man  of  thy  prudence 
will  place  this  to  a  right  account,  to  encourage  thee  to  proceed 
gently  in  these  curious  things,  which  belong  to  a  man  of  leisure 
and  not  to  a  man  of  business.  The  main  chance  must  be 
minded.  Many  an  ingenious  man  has  lost  himself  for  want  of 
this  regard,  by  devoting  too  much  of  his  time  to  these  matters. 
A  hint  thee  will  take  in  friendship :  thy  obliging,  grateful  dis- 
position may  carry  thee  too  far.  I  am  glad  and  delight  much 
in  all  these  things — none  more :  but  then  I  would  not  purchase 
them  at  the  expense  of  my  friend's  precious  time — to  the  detri- 
ment of  his  interest  and  business,  (now,  dear  John,  take  me 
right.)  I  showed  them  to  Sir  Hans.  He  was  much  pleased. 
Lord  Petre  deservedly  much  admires  them ;  and,  indeed,  does 
every  one  that  sees  them,  when  they  are  told  who  was  the  per- 
former. 

"All  this  is  writ  by  rote,  or  from  memory,  for  I  dare  not,  nay, 
I  cannot,  look  into  my  letters ;  for  I  have  no  time  to  add  more, 
but  to  tell  thee — in  the  trunk  of  the  Library  Company,  thee'll 
find  a  suit  of  clothes  for  thyself.  This  may  serve  to  protect 
thy  outward  man,  being  a  drugget  coat,  black  waistcoat,  and 
shagg  breeches.  And  now,  that  thou  may  see  I  am  not 
thoughtless  of  thy  better  part,  I  send  thee  R.  Barclay's  Apolo- 
gy, to  replenish  thy  inward  man.  So  farewell." 

In  a  postscript  he  adds : 

"  There  is  a  map,  and  another  parcel  or  two  besides  for  thee. 


25 

and  Catesby's  books ;  and  Dr.  Dillenius  will  send  thee  his 
History  of  Mosses." 

It  is  but  just  that  we  should  say,  John  Bartram's  views  dif- 
fered in  many  respects  from  those  of  his  friend  Collinson,  both 
in  his  religious  and  political  creed,  and  this  is  perhaps  the 
proper  place  to  refer  to  it. 

When  Bartram  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  the  last  letter 
and  its  accompaniments,  he  concludes  thus  : 

"  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  thee  for  thy  present  of  a  suit  of 
clothes,  which  just  came  in  the  right  time ;  and  Barclay's 
Apology  I  shall  take  care  of  for  thy  sake.  It  answers  thy 
advice  much  better  than  if  thee  had  sent  me  one  of  Natural 
History,  or  Botany,  which  I  should  have  spent  ten  times  the 
hours  in  reading  of,  while  I  have  laboured  for  the  maintenance 
of  my  family.  Indeed,  I  have  little  respect  to  apologies  and 
disputes  about  the  ceremonial  parts  of  religion,  which  often 
introduce  animosities,  confusion,  and  disorders  of  the  mind — 
and  sometimes  body  too :  but,  dear  Peter,  let  us  worship  the 
One  Almighty  Power,  in  sincerity  of  heart,  with  resignation  to 
his  divine  will,  doing  to  others  as  we  would  have  them  do  to  us, 
if  we  were  in  their  circumstances.  Living  in  love  and  inno- 
cency,  we  may  die  in  hope." 

There  are  many  other  passages  throughout  the  correspon- 
dence, which  indicate  that  the  germ  of  those  seeds  which  have 
since  rent  the  society  in  twain,  was  cherished  by  these  friends 
respectively,  in  opposition  to  each  other,  a  century  past. 

John  Bartram  also  seems  to  have  agreed  with  Logan*  as  to 
the  necessity  of  defensive  war,  while  Peter  Collinson  adhered 
to  strict  views  of  Friends  on  this  subject. 

It  still  remains  a  study  for  the  casuists,  and  is  worthy  of  the 
best  thoughts  and  most  profound  consideration  of  the  wisest 
men,  whether  William  Penn's  great  idea  of  founding  a  State, 
upon  the  principle  of  "love  to  God,  and  good  will  to  man;" 
without  recourse,  under  any  conceivable  circumstances  to  defen- 

*  See  "  A  letter  from  James  Logan  to  the  Society  of  Friends,  on  the 
subject  of  their  opposition  in  the  Legislature  to  all  means  for  the  defence 
of  the  colony,  September  22d,  1741."     Article  V.  of  the  Collections  of  the 
Historical  Society  of  Penmylvania,  Vol.  I,  No.  1,  May,  1851. 
3 


sivo  war — to  all  necessary  resistance  to  attack,  or  assault,  could 
have  been  carried  into  effect  without  such  men  as  James 
Logan  at  his  right  hand,  whose  principles  so  far  adapted  them- 
selves to  the  actually  existing  state  of  things  as  to  do  what  was 
necessary  to  be  done,  when  the  alternative  came ;  to  die  your- 
self, suffer  wives  and  children,  old  and  young,  the  brightest  and 
the  best,  to  be  cut  down  and  all  your  human  hopes  destroyed, 
or  to  take  the  lives  of  your  murderous  assailants. 

Logan's  idea  was,  "that  all  government  is  founded  enforce," 
and  involves  the  necessity  of  defensive  war ;  and  he  expresses 
the  surprise  with  which  he  learned  from  Penn,  on  their  first 
voyage  to  this  country,  the  different  views  held  by  his  patron 
the  great  philanthropist. 

Franklin  relates  a  singular  anecdote  of  great  point,  as  having 
come  from  Logan  himself,  detailing  an  occurrence  on  this 
voyage  which  led  to  an  interchange  of  views. 

Many  distinguished  individuals  conforming  to  the  principles 
of  Friends  in  other  respects,  have  been  of  James  Logan's  mind, 
in  this  particular.  Of  this  number  may  be  mentioned,  John 
Dickinson  and  William  Rawle,  as  well  as  John  Bartram. 

But  the  letter  of  James  Logan,  which  now  first  appears  in 
print,  we  are  told  was  held  by  the  committee  of  the  yearly 
meeting  to  which  it  had  been  referred  "unfit  to  be  read  to 
the  meeting." 

There  were  frequent  passages  between  them  as  to  Pitt,  of 
whom  Bartram  was  a  great  admirer.  The  following  is  from 
Collinson,  in  1763 : 

"But  my  dear  John,  I  am  sorry  to  say  thou  art  of  that 
unhappy  cast  of  mind  there  is  no  pleasing. 

"Look  into  Pitt's  peace,  and  see  what  a  pitiful  figure  we 
should  have  made  when  he  adopted  Montcalm's  boundary  for  our 
colonies.  As  Pitt  did  it,  and  accepted  it,  and  made  it  the  foun- 
dation of  his  peace — it  was  glorious !  Pray  look  back  and  see 
what  slaughter  and  destruction  the  Cherokees  made  (when  Pitt's 
British  glory  was  lost  in  Germany)  on  the  back  settlements  of 
Carolina ;  but  every  thing  the  turn-coat  did  was  glorious  with 
my  dear  John !  He  heard  all  their  cruelties,  but  did  not  then 
open  his  lips  to  complain.  Whilst  Pitt  was  sacrificing  thousands 


27 

of  the  best  British  heroes  to  his  projects  on  the  coast  of  France, 
to  gratify  his  vanity — all  was  glorious  ! 

"  My  dear  John,  take  heart,  and  don't  he  carried  away  with 
reports.  Revive  thy  drooping  spirits,  and  look  forward  and 
hope  for  the  hest."  .  .  . 

"  Glorious  Pitt  so  presides  in  my  dear  John's  mind  he  is  in- 
vincible to  complaints,  except  on  the  sorry  peace  that  hath 
given  so  great  an  empire  to  Britain !"  .  .  . 

"  I  have  a  great  respect  for  Pitt,  and  he  has  his  merits  ;  but 
every  thing  he  did  was  not  glorious,  though  my  friend  John 
thinks  so." 

But  their  most  remarkable  difference  of  views  perhaps — one 
frequently,  fully,  and  we  may  say  ably  discussed  between  them, 
was  as  to  our  treatment  of  the  Indians.  Bartram  seems  to  have 
felt  that  their  extermination  was  inevitable  upon  the  approach 
of  civilized  man ;  as  much  so  as  that  of  the  beast  of  the  forest, 
and  the  most  venomous  reptiles  ;  that  they  were  irreclaimable ; 
incapable  of  civilization;  that  all  Christian  efforts  were  lost 
upon  them ;  while  Collinson  uniformly,  earnestly,  and  perse- 
veringly  inculcated  opposite  views. 

All  will  be  interested  to  see  a  portion  of  this  correspondence 
respecting  the  natives.  It  will  be  found  curious,  interesting, 
and  instructive. 

JOHN   BARTRAM   TO   PETER   COLLINSON. 

"February  21,  1756. 

DEAR  PETER — We  are  now  in  a  grievous  distressed  condi- 
tion ;  the  barbarous,  inhuman,  ungrateful  natives  weekly  murder- 
ing our  back  inhabitants ;  and  those  few  Indians  that  profess 
some  friendship  to  us,  are  watching  for  an  opportunity  to  ruin 
us.  And  we  that  are  near  the  city  are  under  apprehensions 
too  from  the  neutral  French,*~which  are  sent  among  us  full  of 
resentment  and  revenge,  although  they  yet  appear  tolerably 
civil  when  we  feed  them  with  the  best  we  can  afford.  They  are 
very  fond  of  their  brethren,  the  Irish  and  Dutch  Romans, 
which  are  very  numerous  amongst  us,  many  of  which  openly 
declare  their  wishes  that  the  French  and  Indians  would  destroy 
us  all ;  and  others  of  them  privately  rejoice  at  our  calamities. 
0  deplorable  condition  !  that  we  suspect  our  friend  of  treachery 


while  he  is  willing  to  assist  us,  and  can't  discover  our  enemy 
till  it  is  too  late  ! 

"  By  what  we  can  understand  by  the  reports  of  our  back 
inhabitants,  most  of  the  Indians  which  are  so  cruel,  are  such  as 
were  almost  daily  familiars  at  their  houses,  ate,  drank,  cursed, 
and  swore  together — were  even  intimate  playmates ;  and  now, 
without  any  provocation,  destroy  all  before  them  with  fire,  ball, " 
and  tomahawk.  They  commonly  now  shoot  with  rifles,  with 
which  they  will  at  a  great  distance,  from  behind  a  tree,  fence, 
ditch  or  rock,  or  under  the  covert  of  leaves,  take  such  sure  aim 
as  seldom  misseth  their  mark.  If  they  attack  a  house  that  is 
pretty  well  manned,  they  creep  behind  some  fence,  or  hedge,  or 
tree,  and  shoot  red  hot  iron  slugs,  or  punk,  into  the  roof,  and 
fire  the  house  over  their  heads ;  and  if  they  run  out  they  are 
sure  to  be  shot  at,  and  most  or  all  of  them  killed.  If  they 
come  to  a  house  where  most  of  the  family  are  women  and  chil- 
dren, they  break  into  it,  kill  them  all,  plunder  the  house,  and 
burn  it  with  the  dead  in  it ;  or  if  any  escape  out,  they  pursue 
and  kill  them.  If  the  cattle  are  in  the  stable,  they  fire  it  and 
burn  the  stable ;  if  they  are  out,  they  are  shot,  and  the  barn 
burnt.  If  our  captains  pursue  them  in  the  level  woods,  they 
skip  from  tree  to  tree  like  monkeys ;  if  in  the  mountains,  like 
wild  goats  they  leap  from  rock  to  rock,  or  hide  themselves,  and 
attack  us  in  flank  and  rear,  when,  but  the  minute  before,  we 
pursued  their  track  and  thought  they  were  all  before  us. 
They  are  like  the  angel  of  death — give  us  the  mortal  stroke 
when  we  think  ourselves  secure  from  danger. 

"  0  Pennsylvania  !  thou  that  was  the  most  flourishing  and 
peaceable  province  in  North  America,  art  now  scourged  by 
the  most  barbarous  creatures  in  the  universe.  All  ages,  sexes, 
and  stations,  have  no  mercy  extended  to  them."  .  .  . 

History  does  not  contain  a  more  graphic  description  of  the 
character  of  early  Indian  warfare.  Those  amongst  us  who  are 
disposed  to  be  very  severe  upon  the  first  settlers  in  New  Eng- 
land for  their  frequent  contests  with  the  natives,  and  indulge 
themselves  in  invidious  comparisons,  might  read  this  corres- 
pondence with  profit.  The  question  has  two  sides ;  and  let  us 
ever  remember,  with  Jeremy  Taylor,  that  severe  judgment 
should  begin  at  home. 


JOHN   BARTRAM   TO   PETER   COLLINSON. 

September  30, 1763. 

DEAR  PETER — I  have  now  travelled  near  thirty  years  through 
our  provinces,  and  in  some,  twenty  times  in  the  same  provinces, 
and  yet  never,  as  I  remember,  once  found  one  single  species 
•in  all  after  times,  that  I  did  not  observe  in  my  first  journey 
through  the  same  province.  But  many  times  I  found  that 
plant  the  first  which  neither  I  nor  any  person  could  find  after, 
which  plants,  I  suppose,  were  destroyed  by  the  cattle.  .  .  . 
The  first  time  I  crossed  the  Shenandoah  I  saw  one  or  two 
plants,  or  rather  stalk  and  seed  of  the  Meadia,  on  its  bank. 
I  jumped  off,  got  the  seed,  and  brought  it  home,  sent  part  to 
thee,  and  part  I  sowed  myself — both  which  succeeded  ;  and 
if  I  had  not  gone  to  that  spot,  perhaps  it  had  been  wholly  lost 
to  the  world.  John  Clayton  asked  me  where  I  found  it ;  I 
described  the  very  spot  to  him,  but  neither  he  nor  any  person 
from  him  could  find  it  after.  0  !  what  a  noble  discovery  I 
could  have  made  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  if 
I  had  gone  down,  and  the  Indians  had  been  peaceably  in- 
clined, as  I  knew  many  plants  that  grew  on  its  northern 
branches.  But  we  are  at  present  all  disappointed. 

I  read  lately,  in  our  newspaper,  of  a  noble  and  absolutely 
necessary  scheme  that  was  proposed  in  England,  if  it  was  prac- 
ticable ;  that  was,  to  search  all  the  country  of  Canada  and 
Louisiana  for  all  natural  productions,  convenient  situations  for 
manufactories,  and  different  soils,  minerals  and  vegetables ;  the 
last  of  which  I  dare  take  upon  myself,  as  I  know  more  of  the 
North  American  plants  than  any  others.  But  this  would  alarm 
the  Indians  to  the  highest  degree.  All  the  discoverers  would 
be  exposed  to  the  greatest  savage  cruelty — the  gun,  tomahawk, 
torture,  or  revengeful,  devouring  jaws.  Before  this  scheme  can 
be  executed,  the  Indians  must  be  subdued,  or  drove  above  a 
thousand  miles  back.  No  treaty  will  make  discovery  safe. 
Many  years  past,  in  our  most  peaceable  times,  far  beyond  the 
mountains,  as  I  was  walking  in  a  path  with  an  Indian  guide, 
hired  for  two  dollars,  an  Indian  man  met  me  and  pulled  off  my 
hat  in  a  great  passion,  and  chawed  it  all  round — I  suppose  to 
show  me  that  he  would  eat  me  if  I  came  into  that  country  again." 
3* 


30 

October  23d,  1763. 

«  DEAR  PETER—  ***** 

**  ****** 

The  most  probable,  and  only  method  to  establish  a  lasting  peace 
with  the  barbarous  Indians,  is  to  bang  them  stoutly,  and  make, 
them  sensible  that  we  are  men  whom  they  for  many  years 
despised  as  women  ;  until  then,  it  is  only  throwing  away  men, 
blood,  and  treasure,  to  make  peace  with  them.  They  will  not 
keep  to  any  treaty  of  peace.  They  all  are,  with  their  fathers, 
the  French,  resolved  to  drive  the  English  out  of  North  America. 
And  although  some  tribes  pretend  to  be  neutral  friends,  it  is  only 
with  a  design  to  supply  the  rest  with  ammunition  to  murder  us. 
Perhaps  now,  and  only  now,  is  the  critical  time  offered  to 
Britain  to  secure  not  only  her  old  possessions,  but  her  so  much 
boasted  new  acquisitions,  in  sending  us  sufficient  supplies  to 
repel  effectually  those  barbarous  savages." 

PETER   COLLINSON   TO   JOHN  BARTRAM. 

"  Ridgeway  House,  December  6,  17 C3. 

"I  am  here  retired,  all  alone,  from  the  bustle  and  hurry  of 
the  town,  meditating  on  the  comforts  I  enjoy ;  and  while  the 
old  log  is  burning,  the  fire  of  friendship  is  blazing — warms  my 
imagination  with  reflecting  on  the  variety  of  incidents  that  hath 
attended  our  long  and  agreeable  correspondence. 

"  My  dear  John,  thou  dost  not  consider  the  law  of  right,  and 
doing  to  others  as  we  would  be  done  unto. 

"  We,  every  manner  of  way,  trick,  cheat,  and  abuse  these 
Indians  with  impunity.  They  were  notoriously  jockeyed  and 
cheated  out  of  their  land  in  your  province,  by  a  man  walking  a 
tract  of  ground  in  one  day,  that  was  to  be  purchased  of  them. 

"  Your  Governor  promised  the  Indians,  if  they  would  not  join 
the  French,  that  when  the  war  was  over  our  troops  would  with- 
draw from  Pittsburg.  They  sent  to  claim  this  promise,  but 
were  shuffled  off.  They  resented  it,  as  that  fortress  was  situated 
on  their  hunting  country. 

"  I  could  fill  this  letter  with  our  arbitrary  proceedings,  all  the 
colonies  through  ;  with  our  arbitrary,  illegal  taking  their  lands 


31 

from  them,  making  them  drunk,  and  cheating  them  of  their 
property.  As  their  merciless,  barbarous  methods  of  revenge 
and  resentment  are  so  well  known,  our  people  should  be  more 
careful  how  they  provoke  them.  Let  a  person  of  power  come 
and  take  five  or  ten  acres  of  my  friend  John's  land  from  him, 
and  give  him  half  price,  or  no  price  for  it,  how  easy  and 
resigned  he  would  be,  and  submit  to  such  usage  !  But  if  an 
Indian  resents  it  in  this  way,  instead  of  doing  him  justice,  and 
making  peace  with  him,  nothing  but  fire  and  faggot  will  do  with 
my  friend  John  !  He  does  not  search  into  the  bottom  of  these 
insurrections.  They  are  smothered  up,  because  we  are  the 
aggressors.  But  see  my  two  proposals,  in  the  October  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,  for  a  peace  with  the  Indians. 

***** 

"  What  a  glorious  scene  is  opened  in  that  rich  country  about 
Pensacola — if  that  despised  country  is  worthy  thy  visitation. 
But  because  Pitt  did  not  get  it,  thou  canst  not  venture  there  on 
any  pretence  !  All  beyond  the  Carolinas  is  forbidden  ground. 
They  are  none  of  thy  darling  Pitt's  acquisitions  ! 

***** 

"  I  hope  what  I  have  writ  will  be  read  with  candour.  Our 
long  friendship  will  allow  us  to  rally  one  another,  and  crack 
a  joke  without  offence,  as  none  was  intended  by  thy  sincere 
friend, 

P.    COLLINSON. 

"  London,  January  1,  1763-4. 

"  I  am  very  thankful  to  the  great  Author  of  my  being  that  I 
enter  the  new  year  in  perfect  good  health  and  spirits.  I 
heartily  wish  the  like  comfortable  situation  may  attend  my  dear 
friend  and  his  family. 

***** 

"  Thy  quick  discernment  of  plants  is  a  knack  peculiar  to 
thyself,  and  is  attained  by  the  long  exercise  of  thy  faculties  in 
that  amusement,  and  is  like  the  hare  finders  with  us.  Some 
can't  discover  them  if  close  under  their  feet ;  others  see  them  at 
a  great  distance. 

"  Indeed,  my  dear  John,  I  must  congratulate  you  on  that 


32 

happy  discovery  of  my  favorite  Meadia.  It  is  really  remarka- 
ble none  should  be  found  since. 

"  I  hear  nothing  more  of  that  proposal  thee  mentions ;  but 
if  there  were  any  real  intention  of  carrying  it  into  execu- 
tion, no  one  properer  than  thyself  for  Natural  History  and 
Botany. 

"  That  the  Indians  should  be  alarmed  at  our  sounding  or 
measuring — I  don't  wonder  they  should  be  jealous  of  our  inva- 
sion of  their  property.  Every  man  is  tenacious  of  his  native 
rights,  and  if  you  invade  their  rights,  you  must  take  the  conse- 
quences. Let  those  be  well  banged — I  may  say  well  hanged — 
that,  by  their  unjust  proceedings,  provoked  the  Indians  to 
hostilities,  knowing  before-hand  their  cruel  resentments." 

Bartram  says  to  Collinson  : 

"March  4,  1764. 
******  *  * 

"  I  think  our  Indians  received  a  full  value  for  that  cheating 
walk,  and  pretended  to  be  fully  satisfied  with  what  they  re- 
ceived above  the  first  agreement ;  and  as  for  Pittsburg,  they  let 
the  French  settle  and  build  there  ;  then  why  may  riot  the  Eng- 
lish, after  they  had  drove  the  French  out,  keep  possession  of 
it  ?  And  as  the  Indians  have  committed  such  barbarous  de- 
struction on  our  people,  we  have  more  reason  to  destroy  them 
and  possess  their  land  than  you  have  to  keep  Canada.  And 
must  all  our  provinces  suffer  a  prodigious  yearly  expense,  and 
have  thousands  of  our  innocent  people  barbarously  murdered, 
because  some  of  our  traders  made  them  drunk  to  get  a  skin 
cheap  ? — or  an  Irishman  settles  on  a  bit  of  their  land  which 
they  will  never  make  use  of  ?  And  if  we  must  settle  any  more 
land,  or  any  of  the  branches  of  the  Mississippi,  pray  say  no 
more  about  our  great  British  empire,  while  we  must  not  be  a 
farthing  the  better  for  it. 

"  I  should  be  exceedingly  pleased,  if  I  could  afford  it,  to 
make  a  thorough  search,  not  only  at  Pensacola,  but  the  coast 
of  Florida,  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  the  banks  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. I  make  no  difference  who  got  it,  if  I  could  but  safely 
travel  in  it. 

"  My  dear  friend,  I  am  so  far  from  taking  offence  at  thy 
familiar  way  of  writing,  that  it  gives  me  much  pleasure." 


33 


COLLINSON   TO   BARTRAM. 

"March  7, 1764. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

"  Is  it  reasonable  to  think  the  Indians  will  love  us,  after  such 
a  cruel,  unprovoked  slaughter  at  Lancaster,  &c.  ?  I  hope  the 
authors  will  be  made  examples  of  justice." 

"MiU  Hill,  May  28,  1766. 
****** 

"  In  all  thy  expeditions,  didst  thee  fall  in  with  any  Indians  ? 
what  nation  ?  and  how  did  they  behave  ?  Is  there  any  dispo- 
sition in  them  to  continue  in  peace  and  friendship  ?  There  is 
much  talk  of  civilizing  them.  A  good,  sensible  man,  named 
Hammerer,  a  foreigner,  who  was  long  in  London,  could  not  be 
easy  without  going  to  reside  among  the  Cherokees,  in  order 
to  try  to  bring  them  to  a  sense  of  moral  duties." 

What  Bartram  saw  and  had  to  encounter  in  his  botanical 
excursions  through  western  New  York  at  that  early  day,  will 
be  better  understood  by  those  who  read  the  "  Narrative  of  a 
Journey  made  in  the  year  1737,  by  Conrad  Weiser,  from  Tul- 
pehocken  to  Onondago,"  lately  published  by  the  Pennsylvania 
Historical  Society.  After  overcoming  all  but  unendurable 
hardships  on  his  journey,  in  the  months  of  February  and  March, 
upon  his  arrival  among  the  natives  of  that  then  savage  frontier, 
he  gives  us  this  account  of  a  conversation  with  them.  "  I  asked 
them  how  it  happened  that  they  were  so  short  of  provisions 
now,  while  twelve  years  ago  they  had  a  greater  supply  than  all 
the  other  Indians ;  and  now  their  children  looked  like  dead 
persons,  and  suffered  much  from  hunger.  They  answered,  that 
now  game  was  scarce,  and  that  hunting  had  strangely  failed 
since  last  winter ;  some  of  them  had  procured  nothing  at  all. 
That  the  Lord  and  Creator  of  the  world  was  resolved  to  de- 
stroy the  Indians.  One  of  their  seers,  whom  they  named,  had 
seen  a  vision  of  God,  who  had  said  to  him  the  following  words  : 
1  You  inquire  after  the  cause  why  game  has  become  scarce.  I 
will  tell  you.  You  kill  it  for  the  sake  of  the  skins  which  you 


34 

give  for  strong  liquor,  and  drown  your  senses,  and  kill  one  an- 
other, and  carry  on  a  dreadful  debauchery.  Therefore  have  I 
driven  the  wild  animals  out  of  the  country,  for  they  are  mine. 
If  you  will  do  good  and  cease  from  your  sins  I  will  bring  them 
back  ;  if  not,  I  will  destroy  them  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth.' 

"I  inquired  if  they  believed  what  the  seer  had  seen  and 
heard.  They  answered,  yes,  some  believed  it  would  happen 
so,  others  also  believed  it,  but  gave  themselves  no  concern 
about  it.  Time  will  show,  said  they,  what  is  to  happen  to  us  ; 
rum  will  kill  us,  and  leave  the  land  clear  for  the  Europeans 
without  strife  or  purchase."  p.  17. 

Upon  another  occasion  he  tells  us  : 

"  This  was  the  hardest  and  most  fatiguing  day's  journey  I  had 
ever  made  ;  my  bodily  strength  was  so  much  exhausted  that  I 
trembled  and -shook  so  much  all  over,  I  thought  I  must  fall  from 
weariness,  and  perish.  I  stepped  aside  and  sat  down  under  a 
tree  to  die,  which  I  hoped  would  be  hastened  by  the  cold 
approaching  night.  When  my  companions  remarked  my  ab- 
sence, they  waited  for  me  some  time,  then  returned  to  seek  me, 
and  found  me  sitting  under  a  tree.  But  I  could  not  be  per- 
suaded to  proceed,  for  I  thought  it  beyond  my  power.  The 
entreaties  of  the  old  chief  and  the  sensible  reasoning  of  Shi- 
kelimo*  (who  said  that  evil  days  were  better  for  us  than  good, 
for  the  first  often  warned  us  against  sins  and  washed  them 
out,  while  the  latter  often  enticed  us  to  sin),  caused  me  to  alter 
my  resolution,  and  I  arose.'' 

Peter  Collinson  enlistecl  several  of  his  friends  to  contribute 
,£10  each,  as  a  yearly  stipend,  to  stimulate,  and  partially  remu- 
nerate Bartram  for  his  researches  and  the  treasures  he  sent 
them  from  the  new  world ;  and  finally  had  him  appointed  king's 
botanist,  with  a  salary  of  .£50  a  year. 

The  interest  expressed  by  Lord  Petre  was  truly  wonderful, 
and  nothing  can  exceed  the  mournful  outpouring  of  the  heart  in 
a  letter  which  announces  the  early  death  of  this  excellent  noble- 
man, and  which,  for  the  pathos  of  its  allusion  to  the  parting,  is 
worthy  to  be  placed  along  side  of  Dr.  Garden's  illustration  of 
how  naturalists  become  attached  to  each  other  on  their  first 
acquaintance.  But  the  letter  must  speak  for  itself. 

*  Father  of  the  Logan  whom  Jefferson  has  made  memorable. 


35 

"  London,  July  3^  1742. 

"  OH  !  FRIEND  JOHN  : — I  can't  express  the  concern  of  mind 
that  I  am  under,  on  so  many  accounts.  I  have  lost  my  friend, 
my  brother.  The  man  I  loved,  and  was  dearer  to  me  than  all 
men — is  no  more.  I  could  fill  this  sheet  and  many  more  ;  but 
oh !  my  anxiety  of  mind  is  so  great,  that  I  can  hardly  write  ; 
and  yet  I  must  tell  thee,  that  on  Friday,  July  2d,  our  dear 
friend  Lord  Petre  was  carried  off  by  the  small  pox,  in  the 
thirtieth  year  of  his  age.  Hard,  hard,  cruel  hard,  to  be  taken 
from  his  friends,  his  family,  his  country,  in  the  prime  of  life ; 
when  he  had  so  many  thousand  things  locked  up  in  his  heart, 
for  the  benefit  of  them  all — now  lost  in  embryo. 

"  I  can  go  no  further,  but  to  assure  thee  that  I  am  thy  friend. 

P.  COLLINSON. 

"  All  our  schemes  are  broke. 

"  Send  no  seeds  for  him,  nor  the  Duke  of  Norfolk ;  for  now, 
he  that  gave  motion  is  motionless — all  is  at  an  end. 

"  As  I  know  this  will  be  a  great  disappointment  to  thee,  if 
thou  hast  a  mind  to  send  the  seeds,  as  was  ordered  for  Lord 
Petre  and  Duke  of  Norfolk  on  thy  own  account  and  risk — I 
will  do  what  I  can  to  dispose  of  them.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk 
shall  have  the  preference  ;  but  there  is  no  obliging  him  to  take 
them,  as  I  had  not  the  order  from  him,  but  from  Lord  Petre. 

"  Send  those  for  the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  P.  Miller. 

"  Lord  Petre  was  a  fine,  tall,  comely  personage — handsome — 
had  the  presence  of  a  prince ;  yet  was  so  happily  mixed,  that 
love  and  awe  were  begot  at  the  same  time.  The  affability  and 
sweetness  of  his  temper  were  beyond  expression,  without  the 
least  mixture  of  pride  or  haughtiness.  With  an  engaging 
smile  he  always  met  his  friends.  But  oh  !  the  endowments  of 
his  mind  were  not  to  be  described.  Few  or  none  could  excel 
him  in  the  knowledge  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences.  He  was 
a  great  mechanic  as  well  as  a  great  mathematician ;  ready  at 
figures  and  calculations,  and  elegant  in  his  tastes. 

"  In  his  religious  way,*  an  example  of  great  piety ;  his 
morals  of  great  temperance  and  sobriety ;  no  loose  word,  or 

*  Lord  Petre  belonged  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 


36 

double  entendre,  did  I  ever  hear — (this  is  something  of  the 
man.)  i  For  his  virtues,  his  excellencies,  and  his  endowments,  I 
loved  him,  and  he  me,  more  like  a  brother  than  a  friend." 

Thirty  years  after  their  correspondence  had  commenced, 
Peter  Collinson  writes  thus  to  John  Bartram  : 

"  I  have  pleasure  upon  pleasure  beyond  measure,  with  perus- 
ing my  dear  John's  letters  of  October  31st,  with  the  rare  plants 
in  Eden." 

"  Think,  my  dear  John,  with  what  amazement  and 

delight  I,  with  Dr.  Solander,  surveyed  the  quire  of  specimens. 
He  thinks  near  half  are  new  genera.  This  will  enrich  the 

fountain  of  knowledge." "But  what  surprises  us  most,  is 

the  Tipitiwitchet  Sensitive.  It  is  quite  a  new  species,  a  new 
genus."  (Dioncea  muscipula.) " 

Again  soon  after — 

"  I  am  glad,  my  dear  John,  I  can  send  our  friend  Solander's 
catalogue  of  thy  last  curious  collection  of  specimens.  There 
are  wonderful  things  amongst  them,  especially  the  Sensitive, 
JEmpetrum"  &c.  *  *  *  *  *  * 

"  They  enrich  our  knowledge,  and  anticipate  our  pleasures, 
and  give  us  a  good  idea  of  the  riches  in  store,  to  gratify  the 
botanists  of  after  ages.  0,  botany !  delightfulest  of  all  sci- 
ences !  There  is  no  end  of  thy  gratifications.  All  botanists 
will  join  with  me  in  thanking  my  dear  John  for  his  unwearied 
pains  to  gratify  every  inquisitive  genius.  I  have  sent  Lin- 
naeus a  specimen,  and  one  leaf  of  Tipitiwitchet  Sensitive  :  only 
to  him  would  I  spare  such  a  jewel.  Pray  send  more  speci- 
mens. I  am  afraid  we  can  never  raise  it — Linnaeus  will  be  in 
raptures  at  the  sight  of  it." 

Again  under  date  of  August  4th,  1763  : 

"  My  garden,  like  thine,  makes  a  glorious  appearance ;  with 
fine  long-spiked  purple  Ononis  ;  with  the  all-spice  of  Carolina 
[Oalycanthus  floridus,  L.,~\  abundantly  in  flower — spreading 
its  perfumes  abroad  ;  the  delectable  red-flowering  Acacia  ;  my 
laurel-leafed  Magnolia,  with  its  noble  blossoms,  which  will  con- 
tinue for  two  months  or  more.  The  great  Rhododendron  has 
been  glorious  beyond  expression ;  and  before,  I  told  thee  of 
the  mountain  Magnolia,  and  the  surprising  flowers  of  the  red 
and  yellow  Sarracenia.  Thus,  my  dear  John,  thou  sees  I  am 


3T 

not  much  behind  thee  in  a  fine  show,  but  when  thy  Eden  plants 
flower,  I  shall  not  be  able  to  bear  the  report  of  them." 

"  Consider,  my  dear  John,  what  pleasure  I  feel  now. 

I  can  give  thee  an  order  for  a  ten  guinea  box,  for  young  Lord 
Petre.  Little  did  I  think,  when  I  gave  thee  the  first  like  order 
for  his  valuable  father  in  1735  or  1736,  that  I  should  live  to 
give  the  like  for  his  son.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  the  spirit 
of  Elijah  rests  on  Elisha,  for  he  began  this  year  with  a  box 
of  thy  seeds." 

In  acknowledging  this,  Bartram  thus  expresses  himself : 

"  I  am  heartily  glad  that  young  Lord  Petre  is  possessed  of 
the  botanical  taste  of  his  father.  I  wish  he  may  resemble  him 
in  virtue.  I  have  intended  to  inquire  after  him  and  his  mo- 
ther in  every  late  letter.  The  pear  raised  from  her  seed  hath 
borne  a  number  of  the  finest  relished  fruit.  I  think  a  better 
is  not  in  the  world." 

In  a  note  to  which,  the  editor  informs  us,  "  This  tree,  known 
as  *  Lady  Petre's  Pear  tree,'  is  still  (1848)  flourishing  at  the 
Bartram  garden,  standing  close  by  the  house. 

Peter  Collinson,  in  1764,  when  noticing  Bartram's  last  re- 
mark, says  :  "  It  has  been  thy  patience  to  wait,  but  my  plea- 
sure to  hear  of  the  delicious  pear  raised  from  Lady  Petre's 
seed ;  but  she,  dear  good  woman,  is  gone  to  rest." 

In  1765  he  makes  this  announcement : 

"  I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  my  good  friend,  that  my 
repeated  solicitations  have  not  been  in  vain.  I  this  day  re- 
ceived certain  intelligence  from  our  gracious  king  that  he  had 
appointed  thee  his  botanist,  with  a  salary  of  fifty  pounds  a 
year." 

These  are  a  few  of  the  many,  many  specimens  of  the  acts  of 
kindness,  expressions  of  sympathy  and  admiration,  and  long 
abiding,  devoted  friendship,  which  these  letters  present,  hold- 
ing up  Peter  Collinson  as  a  pattern  for  the  doers  of  good  in 
all  succeeding  ages. 

"  He  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  constant  correspon- 
dents of  Linnaeus,  and  was  highly  distinguished  in  the  circle 
of  naturalists  and  antiquaries  in  London,  for  nearly  half  a 
century." 

An  interesting  little  tract  giving  some  accounts  of  him, 
4 


38 

•which  appeared  soon  after  his  death,  and  is  generally  ascribed 
to  Dr.  Fothergillf  gave  rise  to  a  correspondence  with  Dr. 
Franklin  as  to  its  authorship. 

The  following  passage  is  from  one  of  Franklin's  letters — 
"  If  we  estimate  the  goodness  of  a  man  by  his  disposition  to 
do  good,  and  his  constant  endeavours  and  success  in  doing  it, 
I  can  hardly  conceive  that  a  better  man  has  ever  existed  ;" — 
speaking  of  himf  who  was  first  to  sound  Peter  Collinson's 
praises,  when  he  went  from  earth  to  heaven. 

But  even  Peter  Collinson,  with  Dr.  Fothergill  at  his  right 
hand,  could  hardly  have  made  Bartram  what  he  became,  but 
for  what  he  says  of  himself ; 

"  I  had  always  since  ten  years  old,  a  great  inclination  for 
plants,  and  knew  all  that  I  once  observed  by  sight,  though  not 
their  proper  names,  having  no  persons  or  books  to  instruct  me ;" 
and,  for  what  his  son  says  of  him — "  He  had  all,  or  most  of 
the  education  that  could  at  that  time  be  acquired  in  our  country 
schools ;  and  whenever  an  opportunity  offered,  he  studied  such 
of  the  Latin  and  Greek  grammars  and  classics  as  his  circum- 
stances enabled  him  to  purchase,  and  always  sought  the  society 
of  the  most  learned  and  virtuous  men."  The  son  also  says, 
that  the  intimate  friendship  and  correspondence  between  his 
father  and  Peter  Collinson  continued  fifty  years,  although  the 
letters  brought  to  light  by  Dr.  Darlington,  cover  a  period  of 
but  thirty-four.  He  purchased  the  place  which  his  garden  has 
made  classic  ground,  at  sheriff's  sale  in  1728,  and  built  the  house 
still  standing  there  in  1731. 

Bartram's  garden  has  been  an  object  of  interest  the  world 
over,  for  a  century  past.  Unique  in  its  character  and  extent 
on  this  side  the  water,  it  became  early  somewhat  famous.  It 
was  not  only  attractive  to  naturalists,  but  was  generally  visited 
by  strangers  who  came  to  Philadelphia  to  spend  any  time,  and 
frequently  by  the  passing  traveller.  Its  precise  location  is  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Schuylkill,  a  little  below  Gray's  Ferry,  an 
intervening  bluff  hiding  it  from  the  Woodlands,  originally  retired 
from  the  great  public  road  leading  south.  Now,  indeed,  the 

*  See  a  fuller  sketch  of  his  life  and  character  in  the  Appendix, 
f  Dr.  Fothergill. 


railroad  passes  through  a  deep  cut  directly  in  rear  of  the  house. 
We  rejoice  that  since  the  appearance  of  these  memorials  it  has 
fallen  into  hands  which,  as  far  as  possible,  will  preserve  what 
may  keep  alive  its  interesting  memories.  It  was  once  feared, 
that  in  the  changes  of  time,  and  chance,  and  fortune,  this  classic 
spot,  where  for  many  a  long  year  things  curious  and  beautiful 
in  nature  were  cultivated,  trained,  and  developed  by  a  master 
hand,  might  become  desecrated  by  occupation  for  the  business 
purposes  of  every  day  life  ;  and  that  not  being  able  to  preserve 
both  "the  beautiful  and  the  useful,"  we  should  have  had  to 
console  ourselves  that  our  own  Franklin  had  classic  authority 
for  placing  "  the  useful"  first,  had  we  been  condemned  to  see 
Bartram's  Garden  transformed  to  a  coal  yard.  Philadel- 
phians  may  thank  Dr.  Darlington's  book,  probably,  for  the 
escape. 

Whoever  visits  the  Bartram  garden  now,  let  him  be  sure  to 
inquire  for  the  "  Lady  Petre's  pear  tree ;"  and  when  he  next 
attends  the  anniversary  exhibition  of  the  Pennsylvania  Horticul- 
tural Society,  let  him  remember  to  look  at  a  specimen  of  its 
fruit  which  he  will  certainly  find  there.  The  president,  secre- 
tary, or  the  second  of  the  committee  on  fruits,  while  they  live, 
will  as  certainly  one  of  them  be  at  hand  to  point  out  this  pro- 
duct of  a  tree  from  seed  planted  more  than  a  century  ago,  of 
fruit  grown  on  the  grounds  of  a  noble  horticulturist  who  was 
also  a  horticulturist  nobleman  in  England,  in  Bartram's 
garden,  on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill,  by  the  agency  of  Peter 
Collinsou. 

We  have  referred  to  three  officers  of  an  existing  society  in 
connection  with  reminiscences  of  their  distinguished  predeces- 
sors in  horticulture,  because  we  know  of  no  others  who  have 
done  more  to  promote  and  extend  the  usefulness  of  this  society ; 
and  we  know  of  no  society  which  has  added  more  to  the  worldly 
comforts,  the  cheerfulness  and  happiness  of  all,  in  a  city  famed 
for  its  abounding  good  things,  and  more  especially  for  the 
number  of  institutions,  where  "  wisdom  dwells  with  prudence, 
and  finds  out  knowledge  of  witty  inventions"  to  do  good. 

We  had  intended  giving  a  passage  or  two  from  Dr.  Fother- 
gill's  letter,  on  the  death  of  his  friend,  but  our  prescribed  limits 


40 

forbid.*  For  an  opportunity  to  do  this,  copying  from  the  origi- 
nal edition,  we  are  indebted  to  that  indefatigable  and  accom- 
plished naturalist,  Dr.  Francis  Boott,f  of  London,  who,  com- 
bining American  sympathies  from  his  birth  among  us,  with 

*  One  of  these  passages  is  here  given : 

"  Planting,  he  used  to  say,  and  gardening,  supply  a  fund  of  entertain- 
ment, the  most  lasting  and  reasonable  of  any  occupation  in  this  life, 
pleasures  not  to  be  purchased.  The  trees  which  we  ourselves  have 
planted,  the  fruits  we  have  raised,  the  plants  we  have  cultivated,  seem  to 
be  like  our  children,  a  kind  of  new  creation.  Their  shade,  their  taste, 
their  fragrance  and  their  beauties,  affect  us  with  a  richer  repast  than  any 
other.  What  a  pleasing  scene,  would  he  observe,  lies  open  to  a  young 
man  of  fortune  devoted  to  such  amusements !  Each  succeeding  year 
produces  new  shades,  other  fruits,  fresh  beauties,  and  brings  besides, 
most  certain  profit.  To  behold  the  rising  groves,  barrenness  made  fertile, 
our  country  improved,  ourselves  made  useful  and  happy,  and  posterity 
enriched !  When  on  this  favorite  subject,  a  very  natural  expression  often 
escaped  him,  that  he  seldom  knew  a  man  possessed  of  a  taste  for  such 
pleasures,  who  was  not  at  the  same  time  temperate  and  virtuous.  And 
indeed  he  had  a  right  to  make  the  observation ;  for  he  had  the  satisfaction 
of  reckoning  among  his  most  intimate  friends,  men  of  the  most  amiable 
and  unblemished  character,  in  all  stations,  parties,  and  distinctions." 

"  The  quantities  of  new  seeds  he  received  from  America  not  only  sup- 
plied his  own  garden  with  every  thing  that  was  curious  in  that  region 
but  furnished  him  with  the  means  of  procuring  others  in  exchange  from 
other  parts  of  the  globe." 

f  Since  this  article  was  commenced,  we  came  across,  at  the  Philadel- 
phia Library,  unlocked  for,  in  a  volume  labelled  "  Pamphlets  on  Eth- 
nology, &c.,"  a  work  with  this  title  page — "  Hortus  Collinsonianus.  An 
account  of  plants  cultivated  by  the  late  Peter  Collinson,  Esq.,  F.  K.  S., 
arranged  alphabetically,  according  to  their  modern  names,  from  the 
catalogue  of  his  garden,  and  other  manuscripts.  Not  Published.  Swan- 
sea: Printed  by  N.  C.  Murray  and  D.  Rees,  MDCCCXLIII."  Its  pre- 
face signed  L.  W.  Dillwyn,  Sketty  Hall,  March  8,  1843,  in  a  full  and 
interesting  account  of  the  work,  gives  us  the  following  facts.  "  The 
gardens  at  Peckham  and  Mill  Hill  had  attained  such  a  high  celebrity, 
that  a  publication  of  Mr.  Collinson's  Catalogue  appears  to  have  been 
called  for  by  some  of  the  most  distinguished  naturalists,  and  the  reason 
for  his  noncompliance  with  their  wishes  is  thus  given  in  a  letter  of  his, 
dated  May  12,  1756,  to  his  friend  Linnaeus : — '  You  must  remember  I  am 
a  merchant,  a  man  of  great  business,  with  many  affairs  in  my  head  and 
on  my  hands.  I  can  never  pretend  to  publish  a  catalogue  of  my  garden, 
unless  I  had  one  of  your  ingenious  pupils  to  digest  or  methodize  it  for 
me.  It  only  serves  now  for  my  own  private  use.'  "  See  Sir  J.  E.  Smith's 
Correspondence  of  Linnoms,  Vol.  1.  p.  39. 


41 

intimate  relations  to  the  many  eminent  lovers  of  nature  around 
him,  since  this  correspondence  appeared,  has  furnished  evi- 
dence of  an  intense  desire  to  bring  to  light  all  that  pertains 
to  one  who  did  so  much  good  in  his  day  and  generation  on 
both  sides  the  water,  and  made  so  little  noise  in  doing  it. 

We  hope  to  be  excused  for  indulging  in  so  many  extracts, 
if  the  reader  shall  find  them  give  reality  to  the  idea  of  the 
great  and  good  John  Fothergill,  that  Peter  Collinson  made 
John  Bartram  what  he  was ;  and  if  they  shall  lead  more  peo- 
ple to  know  than  knew  it  before,  that  this  Pennsylvania  gar- 
dener of  the  London  merchant's  training,  was,  himself,  a  great 
man,  in  other  respects,  besides  being  the  greatest  natural  bo- 
tanist of  his  time. 

He  closes  his  prefatory  remarks  with  the  copy  of  a  memorandum,  to 
which  Mr.  Collinson  had  added  his  signature  in  1763. 

"  I  often  stand  with  wonder  and  amazement  when  I  view  the  incon- 
ceivable variety  of  flowers,  shrubs,  and  trees,  now  in  our  gardens,  and 
what  were  there  forty  years  ago  ;  in  that  time  what  quantities  from  all 
North  America  have  annually  been  collected  by  my  means  and  procur- 
ing, and  for  some  years  past  a  great  variety  of  seeds  are  brought  from 
China,  and  many  fine  plants  raised  ;  the  China  Mulberry  I  first  raised, 
and  from  Siberia  many  curious  shrubs  and  flowers.  Very  few  gardens, 
if  any,  excel  mine  at  Mill  Hill,  the  rare  exotics  of  which  are  my  delight." 

The  horticulturist  will  find  himself  amply  repaid  by  looking  over  this 
rare  and  curious,  "not  published"  work,  which  he  will  find  bound  up 
with  the  pamphlets  on  Ethnology,  in  the  Philadelphia  Library,  as  stated. 
But  where  did  it  come  from,  and  how  did  it  get  there  ?  We  have  before 
referred  to  the  interest  awakened  by  Dr.  Darlington's  late  work  in  Eng- 
land. One  of  the  many  interesting  tokens  of  this  was  the  reception  by 
the  author,  from  L.  W.  Dillwyn,  through  the  agency  of  Dr.  Boott,  of  five 
copies  of  the  Hortus  Collinsonianus,  one  of  which  Dr.  Darlington  pre- 
sented to  the  Philadelphia  Library.  These  are  the  only  copies,  probably, 
to  be  found  here. 

In  connection  with  this  subject,  it  should  also  be  stated,  that  the  letter- 
book  of  James  Logan,  containing  copies  of  many  letters  to  Peter  Collin- 
son, is  still  extant,  and  a  large  file  of  the  original  letters  of  this  prince 
of  horticulturists  in  his  day,  is  carefully  preserved  among  the  archives  of 
the  Logan  family.  Let  us  hope  that  some  gifted  one  may  yet  arise, 
who  will  do  more  justice  than  has  yet  been  done  to  each  of  these  distin- 
guished names. 


42 


APPENDIX. 


IT  should  have  been  observed  in  the  notice  of  Dr.  Darlington's 
work,  that  there  is  prefixed  to  the  letters  of  each  of  John  Bar  tram's 
and  Humphry  Marshall's  distinguished  correspondents,  a  condensed 
but  careful,  authoritative  and  interesting  sketch  of  their  respective 
lives  and  characters.  For  that  of  Peter  Collinson,  Dr.  Fothergill's 
letter,  and  the  Linnaean  correspondence  by  Sir  James  Edward  Smith, 
are  referred  to  as  his  leading  authorities.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
it  might  be  gratifying  to  those  who  take  a  lively  interest  in  Peter 
Collinson's  history  and  character,  to  append  to  this  edition,  a  brief 
sketch  of  his  Biography  j  and  also  to  add  the  history  of  his  descen- 
dants, to  the  present  time.  This  last  has  been  furnished  to  Dr. 
Darlington  at  his  request,  by  the  great-grand-daughter,  Miss  Anna 
Maria  Collinson,  in  a  letter  to  him,  dated  Leamington,  Warwickshire, 
England,  May  14,  1850,  with  which  we  have  been  kindly  favoured. 

We  learn  from  the  letter  published  soon  after  his  death,  usually 
ascribed  to  Dr.  Fothergill,  and  re-published  as  such  by  Dr.  Lettsom 
in  his  edition  of  Fothergill's  worksf  that  the  family  of  the  COLLIN- 
SON'S is  of  ancient  standing  in  the  North  :  PETER  and  JAMES  were 
the  great-grand-sons  of  Peter  Collinson,  who  lived  on  the  paternal 
estate  called  Hugal  Hall,  or  Height  of  Hugall,  near  Windermere 
Lake,  in  the  parish  of  Stavely,  about  ten  miles  from  Kendal,  in 
Westmoreland. 

Peter  was  born  January  28, 1693-4,  in  a  house  opposite  to  Church 
Alley,  St.  Clement's  Lane,  Lombard  street,  London.  He  resided 
for  many  years  at  the  Red  Lion,  on  Grace  Church  street,  where  as  a 
wholesale  woollen  draper,  in  company  with  his  brother  James,  he 
accumulated  a  handsome  estate.  In  1724,  he  married  Mary,  the 
daughter  of  MICHAEL  RUSSELL,  Esq.,  of  Mill  Hill,  Hendon.  The 
wife  died  in  May,  1753,  leaving  him  a  son  MICHAEL,  and  a  daughter 
MARY,  married  to  the  late  JOHN  CATOR,  Esq.,  of  Beckenham,  Kent. 
Both  inherited  many  of  the  good  qualities  of  their  father,  but  Michael 
is  said  to  have  allowed  his  political  feeling  to  carry  him  away  when  the 
war  broke  out  with  this  country,  even  to  the  undervaluation  of  his 
father's  most  intimate  friend,  Dr.  Fothergill,  and  extending  to  both 

*  Entitled  "  Some  Account  of  the  late  Peter  Collinson,  Fellow  of  the  Koyal  Society,  and  of 
the  Society  of  Antiquaries  in  London,  and  of  the  Society  of  Berlin  and  Upsal.  In  a  letter  to 
a  friend,  1770." 


43 

Dr.  Franklin  and  John  Bartram.*  Peter  Collinson's  attachment  to 
Natural  History,  led  him  early  to  make  a  collection  of  dried  speci- 
mens of  plants,  and  he  availed  himself  of  his  ready  access  to  the  best 
gardens  around  London.  He  became  intimate  with  the  most  eminent 
Naturalists  of  his  time — and  was  one  of  the  few  who  visited  Sir 
Hans  Sloan,  at  all  times  familiarly ;  a  firm  friendship  having  been 
early  established  between  them  which  lasted  while  they  lived.  There 
were  but  few  articles  in  that  superb  collection,  now  the  British 
Museum,  commenced  by  his  friend,  with  which  he  was  not  familiar. 
He  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  in  1728,  and  became 
one  of  the  most  diligent  and  useful  members.  While  unremitting  in 
his  attention  to  business,  he  extended  his  correspondence  upon  Na- 
tural History,  and  all  matters  connected  with  the  arts  and  sciences, 
the  world  over.  Such  was  his  diligence  and  economy  of  time  that  he 
never  appeared  to  be  in  a  hurry,  while  he  maintained  this  extensive 
correspondence  with  great  punctuality,  and  laid  so  many  of  the 
learned  and  ingenious  under  obligations  to  him,  in  distant  parts  of  the 
globe,  by  acquainting  them  with  the  discoveries  and  improvements 
in  Natural  History  around  him,  that  he  received  like  information 
from  them  in  return.  Cadwalader  Golden,  Esq.  of  New  York,  and 
Dr.  Franklin  and  James  Logan,  of  Philadelphia,  as  well  as  John  Bar- 
tram,  were  among  his  particular,  and  most  valued  correspondents. 
His  aid  to  the  Philadelphia  Library  was  extended,  in  a  similar  manner, 
to  many  others  in  the  vicinity ;  and  was  promotive  of  widely  ex- 
tended and  lasting  good,  which  entitle  his  name  to  our  grateful 
remembrance,  and  secure  to  Dr.  Darlington  many  thanks  for  bringing 
it  vividly  to  mind.  During  the  residence  of  Linnaeus  in  England, 

*R  is  but  just  to  add  thefdUauriny  testimonial  by  his  son. 

"At  Sproughton  Church,  near  Ipswich : 

"  This  monument  is  erected 

by  Charles  Streynsham  Collinson,  Esquire, 

to  the  memory  of  his  father 

MICHAEL  COLLIXSON,  Esquire, 

late  of  the  Chantry  in  this  parish,  and  also 

of  Hendon  in  the  County  of  Middlesex; 

who  died  the  llth  of  August.  1795,  aged  67  years 

He  was  distinguished  for  his  knowledge  of  Natural  History, 

And  for  the  attention  he  pave  to  botanical  subjects  in  particular. 

From- his  generally  well-informed  mind  and  polished  manners, 

his  company  was  much  esteemed  by  persons  of  the  first  eminence; 

And  he  endeared  himself  to  his  more  immediate  connections. 

by  his 

benevolence  and  liberality. 

The  enjoyment  of  the  latter  part  of  his  life  was  greatly  interrupted 
by  a  series  of  painful  disorders,  which  he  sustained 
with  much  exemplary  resignation  and  fortitude." 

Nich.  Lit.  An.  5th  To?,  p.  315. 


44 

he  contracted  a  close  intimacy  with  him,  which  continued  a  life  long, 
and  abounded  in  the  reciprocation  of  kind  offices.  As  an  Anti- 
quarian, he  was  not  less  eminent  and  distinguished. 

His  first  improvements,  and  collections  in  Horticulture  were  at  Peck- 
ham,  in  Surrey  j*  here  they  became  extensive  and  very  interesting. 
In  1749,  when  he  removed  to  Ridgway  House  at  Mill  Hill,  he  began 
the  transplanting  of  them,  which  occupied  him  for  two  years.  He 
was  sometimes  despoiled  of  these  treasures  so  near  his  heart,  but 
always  bore  his  loss  patiently,  while  he  strove  to  supply  their  place. 

"  While  in  the  country  he  spent  most  of  his  time  in  his  garden, 
taking  care  of  the  trees  and  plants,  and  observing  the  operations  of 
nature :  he  was  exceedingly  fond  of  fruit,  and  a  perpetual  admirer  of 
flowers,  always  having  them  in  his  house,  from  the  early  snow-drop  to 
the  autumn  cyclamen."f 

The  Hortus  Collinsonianus,  prepared  and  printed  by  L.  W.  Dillwyn, 
before  alluded  to,  will  fully  illustrate  his  habits  in  this  respect,  and 
well  repay  diligent  and  close  perusal  by  every  lover  of  horticulture. 

His  person  was  rather  short  than  tall ;  he  had  a  pleasing  and 
social  aspect ;  was  of  a  temper  open  and  communicative,  capable  of 
feeling  for  distress,  and  ready  to  relieve  and  sympathise.  Excepting 
some  attacks  of  the  gout,  he  enjoyed,  in  general,  perfect  health,  and 
great  equality  of  spirits,  and  had  arrived  at  his  75th  year ;  when, 
being  on  a  visit  to  Lord  Petre,  for  whom  he  had  a  singular  regard, 
he  was  seized  with  an  attack,  which,  baffling  every  attempt  to  relieve 
it,  proved  fatal,  on  the  llth  of  August,  1768.J 

For  the  following  letter,  from  Mr.  Thomas  Collinson,*  a  nephew 
of  Peter  Collinson,  addressed  to  Dr.  Bucarel,  giving  some  account  of 
his  illness  and  last  hours,  we  are  indebted  to  "  Nichols's  Literary 
Anecdotes  of  the  Eighteenth  Century." 

*  His  brother  had  a  garden  near  him. 

t  We  are  indebted  for  several  hints  and  facts  in  this  notice  to  a  manuscript  sketch  from  the 
collections  of  a  lady  in  this  city,  illustrative  of  the  mysteries  of  nature's  handiwork,  and  which 
we  trust  may  some  day  see  the  light 

t  Peter  Collinson,  born  January  14th,  1693-4,  I  Mary,  daughter  of  Michael  Russell,  Esq., 
died  August  11,  1768.  of  Mill  Hill,  died  March  28, 1753. 


Michael  Collinson,  died  August  11, 1795.   I      ....  Mary  Collinson,— John   Cator,   Esq.,  of 
aged  67.  Beckenham,  Kent,  M.  P. 
J  for  Callington. 

Charles  Streynsham  Collinson,  Esq.  High  Sheriff 
°fSUff0'k'1801- 


*  We  add  a  few  words  on  the  life  and  character  of  this  nephew,  whose  name,  stock,  early 
training,  and  whole  life,  further  illustrate  the  idea  with  which  this  Tribute  commences,  as  to 
the  excellent  traits  of  character  resulting  from  "  a  life  conformed*  to  principles  of  Friends." 
We  learn  from  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  Vol.  73,  p.  878,  that  Thomas  Collinson  died  August 


45 

"  The  sympathising  concern  expressed  in  yours  makes  me  believe 
the  following  particulars  of  my  late  worthy  uncle's  illness  will  not  be 
altogether  uninteresting.  [A  brief  account  is  then  given  of  the  painful 
disease,  with  which  he  was  attacked,  while  on  a  visit  at  Lord  Petre's, 
whereupon  he  immediately  returned  to  town.]  Doctors  Reeves  and 
Russell,  Surgeons  Crowell  and  Adair  attended  him,  but  all  was  in 
vain.  On  Thursday  last,  about  20  minutes  before  two,  he  quitted 
this  world. 

"  Through  the  whole  of  his  disorder  he  expressed  the  most  cheerful 
patience  and  humble  fortitude.  He  told  me  at  first  that « let  the  event 
be  what  it  might,  he  was  content :  that  it  was  totally  indifferent  to 
him  whether  he  was  to  go  then,  or  to  continue  four  or  five  years 
longer.'  'Few  men/  he  added,  'have  enjoyed  life  more,  been  more 
exempt  from  pain  and  disease;  and  now  (he  subjoined,)  it  is  come  so 
late  in  life,  I  am  thankful  to  Providence  he  has  preserved  me  so 
long.  I  cheerfully  resign,  and  am  not  afraid  to  die.'  No  complaint, 
no  murmer  was  heard.  He  accepted  with  the  kindest  notice  all  the 
assistance  administered ;  told  us,  he  submitted  to  the  various  medical 
and  chirurgical  operations,  both,  as  being  his  duty,  and  to  give  satis- 
faction to  his  family  :  if  success  attended,  it  was  well ;  if  the  contrary, 
it  was  also  well.  Thus  the  good  man  took  leave  of  all  visibles ;  he  had 
used  them,  without  abusing  them.  He  had  lived  pleasantly,  usefully, 
and  honourably ;  might  be  justly  called  a  friend  to  mankind,  and  an 
unwearied  promoter  of  knowledge  in  general,  and  of  Natural  History 
in  particular.  What  can  humanity  have  attained  to  more  desirable  ? 
so  to  have  lived,  and  thus  to  have  died.  Yet  though  reason  almost 
forbids,  still  the  feelings  of  nature  compel  me  to  weep." 

22d,  1803,  in  his  77th  year,  and  that  he  was  a  man  of  Intellectual  superiority  and  distinguished 
worth.  "  He  was  not  one  of  the  multitude  whose  passage  through  life  resembles  that  of  an 
arrow  through  the  air,  leaving  not  a  trace  behind.  In  his  youth,  by  passing  much  of  his  time 
with  his  uncle  PETER,  he  formed  an  acquaintance  with  many  of  the  scientific  characters  of  that 
period;  and  his  mind  became  impressed  with  that  lore  of  knowledge,  and  energy  in  its  pur- 
suit,  which  attended  him  through  a  long  life,  and  only  ceased  with  his  existence."  Then  after 
giving  an  account  of  his  extensive  travels,  his  many  accomplishments,  his  varied  and  exten- 
sive knowledge  of  Nature  and  Art,  and  especially  of  the  topography  and  Structures  of  Ancient 
Rome,  it  is  said  of  him :  "  His  acquaintance  with  Natural  Philosophy  was  considerable;  and  to 
some  branches  of  the  mathematics  he  had  attained  distinguished  eminence.  His  conversation 
was  uncommonly  animated  and  energetic ;  his  memory  most  retentive,  bringing  forward  from 
its  rich  treasury  the  most  appropriate  illustration  of  the  subject.  From  his  society,  few  retired 
without  improvement,  none  without  pleasure;  his  lucid  and  happy  mode  of  communicating 
instruction,  especially  to  young  people,  was  a  marked  feature  in  his  character;  while  they 
eagerly  listened,  and  imbibed  the  streams  of  knowledge,  they  felt  rather  conferring  than  re- 
ceiving an  obligation,  such  was  the  urbanity  and  fascination  of  his  manners.  As  an  (econo- 
mist of  his  time,  few  equalled,  none  surpassed  him ;  its  minutest  divisions  were  not  suffered  to 
pass  away  unheeded  or  unimproved.  To  this,  his  constant  habit  of  registering  the  transactions 
of  each  day  materially  contributed ;  and  that  which  was  terminated  without  some  advance  to 
learning  or  science,  he  considered  as  lost.  These  memoranda,  regularly  entered  at  the  close  of 


46 

All  accounts  agree  that  Peter  Collinson  left  behind  him  many  ma- 
terials to  aid  and  interest  in  the  study  of  Natural  History.  The  devo- 
tion to  Horticulture  for  the  last  half  century,  on  both  sides  the  water, 
and  its  present  refined  taste,  owe  much  to  his  untiring  industry  and 
successful  exertions  in  its  behalf.  Philip  Miller,  the  great  London 
gardener,  whose  "  Gardener's  and  Botanist's  Dictionary,"  as  edited 
by  Martyn,  has  never  been  surpassed  either  in  extent  of  information 
or  accuracy,  and  which  furnishes  so  large  a  portion  of  the  contents  of 
all  the  most  valuable  recent  works  on  the  subject,  was  his  right-hand 
man  and  frequent  fellow  counsellor.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  of  his 
time,  as  well  as  both  the  Lords  Petre  in  succession  "  and  others  of 
the  first  rank  in  life  and  letters  were  his  friends  j  and  he  was  continu- 
ally urging  them  to  prosecute  the  most  liberal  improvements." 

The  portrait  of  him,  by  Miller,  prefixed  to  Dr.  FothergilTs  letter, 
is  said  by  those  of  high  authority,  to  be  "  excellent." 

The  one  preceding  this  Tribute  is  copied  from  it,  being  selected  as 
the  best  among  five  sent  over  by  Dr.  Boott,  with  a  very  curious  and 
interesting  collection  of  Collinsoniana,  gathered  and  neatly  bound  up, 
for  the  author  of  the  Memorials  after  their  appearance  in  England. 
Indeed,  many  have  recently  interested  themselves  to  hunt  up  every 
thing  pertaining  to  the  cherished  name  and  good  doings  of  this  most 
excellent  and  extraordinary  man. 

We  follow  out  the  suggestion  as  to  his  descendants. 

the  day,  throughout  a  long  series  of  years,  form  a  very  extensive  and  valuable  collection  of  facts, 
respecting  both  men  and  things.  His  application,  even  at  that  period  of  life  when,  with  most 
indulgence  takes  place  of  activity,  and  intellectual  exertions  yields  to  necessary  repose,  was  truly 
extraordinary.  To  a  new  object,  or  to  the  renewal  of  acquaintance  with  one  imperfectly  inves- 
tigated, he  applied  with  all  the  ardour  of  youth,  but  with  the  perseverance  of  more  mature 
age.  Of  the  evils  and  afflictions  incident  to  humanity  he  experienced  a  full  proportion.  On 
being  married  to  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Hinton  Brown  he  became  a  partner  in  the  banking  house 
of  Brown  &  Co.,  the  unexpected  failure  of  which  closed  his  prospects  of  future  affluence  for- 
ever. He  declined  again  entering  into  business,  preferring  the  independence  of  leisure,  which 
enabled  him  to  follow  his  favourite  pursuits  in  science,  to  the  risk  and  toil  of  renewing  his  for- 
tune, which  he  felt  was  not  a  duty  incumbent  on  him,  having  only  one  child,  of  whom  and  of 
his  wife  he  was  the  survivor.  In  the  first  calamity,  among  other  keenly-felt  disappointments, 
he  witnessed  the  dispersion  of  his  noble  library,  of  more  than  10,000  volumes  collected  with 
superior  judgment  and  attention.  On  this  melancholy  reverse  he  was  surrounded  by  a  few 
much  respected  and  truly  respectable  friends,  who  administered  every  consolation  to  his 
wounded  feelings  that  benevolence  and  philanthropy  could  suggest  (for  to  a  mind  liko  his.  of 
exquisite  sensibility, his  sufferings  were  in  the  highest  degree  acute;)  but  after  his  first  shook 
had  subsided,  his  conscious  rectitude  and  unimpeached  integrity  enabled  him  to  sustain  his 
situation  with  the  dignified  composure  of  a  philosopher,  and  the  resignation  of  a  Christian. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  religious  society  of  Friends,  to  which  he  adhered  through  life,  and 
maintained  its  principles  with  unvarying  consistency.  His  political  sentiments  were  uniform, 
and  were  those  of  the  Old  Whigs ;  to  several  of  the  leading  characters  of  which  party  he  was 
intimately  knp,wn  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  Of  so  excellent,  so  estimable  an  indi- 
vidual, this  is  a  brief,  and  very  imperfect  record;  but  while  memory  remains,  his  friends  will 
not  cease  to  revere  a  character  equally  distinguished  by  powers  of  intellect,  moral  rectitude, 
liberality  of  sentiment,  and  urbanity  of  manners." 


47 

Miss  Collinson  thus  continues  the  history  of  the  family, — in  her 
letter  to  Dr.  Darlington, — "  Michael  Collinson  died  in  1795,  leaving 
a  son  (my  father),  Charles  Streynsham,  and  a  daughter  Marian, 
(Mrs.  Close,)  who  died  in  1826.  Mary  (Mrs.  Cator)  died  in  1804, 
without  children. 

My  father  returned  to  England  in  1798,  after  thirty  years  residence 
in  India.  My  aunt,  Mrs.  Close,  left  one  son,  Edward,  now  (I  believe) 
a  judge  in  New  South  Wales, — married,  and  has  children  j  but  soon 
after  his  mother's  death  he  dropped  all  correspondence  with  my 
father.  My  father  had  eleven  children ;  one  boy  died  in  childhood ; 
but  ten  survived  their  father,  and  lived  to  grow  up  ;  and  now  we  are 
but  five.  My  three  beloved,  amiable,  and  brave  brothers,  were  all 
taken  from  us  within  two  years !  The  second  (William  Clinton 
Peter,)  in  the  37th  Regiment,  N.  T.,  died  on  the  30th  January,  1840, 
of  a  severe  wound  received  at  the  taking  of  Pushoot ;  the  third 
(Henry  Redfearn,)  of  yellow  fever,  8th  May,  1840,  in  Jamaica, 
whilst  with  his  Regiment,  the  64th ;  and  the  eldest,  a  captain  in  the 
18th  Royal  Irish,  was  killed,  July  21st,  1842,  at  the  taking  of  Chin- 
Kang-Fou,  in  China :  all  three  deserving  of  the  numerous  and  high 
testimonies  to  their  worth,  which  we  have  received  in  letters  from 
the  officers  of  their  several  regiments.  One  sister  died  in  Leaming- 
ton of  a  decline,  in  1843  ;  and  another,  last  year,  fell  a  victim  to  that 
fearful  scourge,  cholera,  at  Boulogne,  in  France.  It  has  pleased  our 
Almighty  Father  most  repeatedly  and  severely  to  afflict  us;  and 
though  his  mercy  has  enabled  us  to  bear  these  heavy  trials,  yet  no 
time  has  yet  enabled  me  to  dwell  or  write  upon  them  with  compo* 
sure. 

Two  of  my  sisters  are  married,  and  have  children.  I  believe,  now, 
all  the  descendants  of  our  worthy  ancestor,  bearing  the  name  of 
Collinson,  are  my  two  sisters,  Emily  Frances,  and  Louisa, — and 
myself.  It  is  a  sad  retrospect  I  have  gone  through,  and  you  must, 
dear  sir,  pardon  any  expression  of  my  feelings,  I  have  been  led  to 
intrude  upon  you,  in  writing  upon  this  melancholy  subject." 

In  a  recent  communication  to  the  writer,  Dr.  Darlington  says, 
"  From  subsequent  letters  of  my  esteemed  correspondent,  Miss  Anna 
Maria  Collinson,  we  learn  that  her  two  married  sisters  are  named 
Octavia  Aylmer,  and  Georgiana  Custance.  Which  is  the  elder  we 
know  not ;  but  we  gather  from  the  letters,  that  Mrs.  Aylmer  resides 
at  Bath, — and  Mrs.  Custance  at  Brussels.  They  have  also  an  uncle 
(Colonel  Sowcrby)  in  Hertfordshire,  Wales.  It  seems  truly  remarka- 
ble, and  melancholy,  that  nearly  all  the  male  posterity  of  the  good 


48 

old  Quaker  should  have  become  soldiers,  and  died  in  the  military 
service  of  their  country  !"    Miss  Collinson  says  : 

"  We  were  always  brought  up  to  venerate  the  name  of  Peter  Collin- 
son. My  dear  father  (who  truly  was  worthy  of  the  name, — and 
inherited  the  virtues,  if  not  the  extent  of  knowledge,  of  the  great 
Peter,}  was  excessively  fond  of,  and  understood  his  garden." 

In  closing  this  appendix  we  borrow  from  Dr.  Wood's  late  centen- 
nial discourse  upon  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  his  reference  to  Dr. 
Fothergill,  the  most  intimate  friend  of  Peter  Collinson  ;  and  whose 
relations  to  the  Hospital  were  analogous  to  those  of  Peter  to  the 
Library. 

"  It  would  be  unpardonable  to  pass  without  notice  the  name  of 
Dr.  John  Fothergill,  of  London,  who  was  untiring  in  his  good  offices, 
not  only  subscribing  largely  of  money,  and  making  valuable  dona- 
tions of  books,  anatomical  models,  drawings,  &c.,  and  exerting  his 
influence  in  England  in  various  ways  for  the  good  of  the  Hospital." 

In  a  note  to  this  interesting  discourse  he  gives  us  a  particular 
description  of  the  character  and  important  influence  of  these  donations. 

Dr.  Wood  brings  prominently  to  view  how  much  one  of  our  first 
and  best  public  Institutions  owes  to  the  efforts  of  FRIENDS,  and  par- 
ticularly to  a  London  Friend,  who  was  also  Peter  Collinson's  friend. 


a 


SPEEDY  BINDER 

Syrocuie.  N.   Y. 
^    Stockton,  Calif. 


THE  LIBRARY 

* '•   ~*~-      o^    <~*  AT  T 


